At a recent meeting for conservative Michigan women, the executive director of a far-right group claimed that they are now directly involved with a GOP governor candidate’s campaign.
The speaker, Tammy Clark, is the executive director of Stand Up Michigan (SUM), a group that rose to prominence amid anti-government protests, particularly those tied to Michigan’s anti-COVID measures. Clark has personally fundraised for Jan. 6 rioters and boasted about doing karaoke last December with Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader currently on trial for seditious conspiracy.
In her speech, Clark claimed progressives are “literally trying to deconstruct America and then make America part of a global worldwide government.”
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But, she added, “All hope is not lost. We at Stand Up Michigan have been called into the Tudor campaign to now start helping with messaging. Over the last two weeks, her messaging has changed.”
The campaign Clark claims to be helping is that of Tudor Dixon, a conservative commentator running for Michigan governor. Dixon and her campaign have previously rubbed shoulders with Clark, SUM, and local conspiracy theorists, with Dixon even claiming during a primary debate that she believed Donald Trump won Michigan in 2020. (He did not.) But as she enters the general election season, Dixon has appeared to dodge questions on her 2020 views, leading to criticism from some Trump fans.
Clark’s claims suggest the campaign is conducting behind-the-scenes outreach to the conspiratorial right.
Audio obtained by The Daily Beast, from an Oct. 11 meeting of the Muskegon Conservative Women’s Club, appears to show Clark voicing some of those frustrations from the right.
“I honestly, I reached out because I said, ‘I’m sick and tired of defending this campaign. What are you doing?’” Clark told the audience. “‘I’m sorry, but that’s the facts. And I know and I’m not mad at anybody, I’m not saying you’re being a bad person, but this is ridiculous.’ So we were able to start out helping, and I’m so thankful that they recognized we have the greatest resource. We have this fantastic network of political capital, media capital. We got chapters all over the state and we can mobilize them to help. And, you know, but we said, ‘But thing is, you've got to work on your messaging.’
“So over the last two weeks, this is what I want to leave you guys with for the last two weeks, have you heard her messages? She’s on fire. It’s all about parental rights and education.”
Neither Clark nor SUM returned requests for comment clarifying SUM’s role in the campaign. Reached via email, a Dixon spokesperson did not directly comment on SUM’s alleged role, but wrote that “the Dixon campaign has momentum in Michigan and we are pleased by the wide variety of grassroots support for Tudor and her positive agenda, including from Stand Up Michigan, Michigan’s largest Police organization, and parents organizations across the state.”
Nancy Wang, executive director of the Michigan-based voters rights group Voters Not Politicians, called the recordings concerning.
“What is most concerning is that they reveal how much Stand Up Michigan has infiltrated the Dixon campaign, to the point where they’re boasting about how many strings they pulled,” Wang told The Daily Beast.
Clark spoke at a Dixon campaign event on education in September, although schools have always been a hot topic for Dixon, who has campaigned for restrictions on how schools can address topics related to race, gender, and sexuality. Dixon has endorsed legislation that would block grade-school teachers from addressing sexual orientation and bar transgender students from playing on sports teams that correspond with their gender. (Dixon, whose children attend private schools, has received campaign contributions from billionaire charter school advocate Betsy DeVos, and has joined DeVos in backing a proposal that would allow public money to fund private schools in Michigan.)
Some of Clark’s claims about helping the campaign appear to be playing out on the ground. She announced, for instance, a SUM-run bus tour featuring Dixon, which began last week and is currently ongoing. Matt DePerno, an election-denying attorney general candidate, has also participated in the tour. Dixon has repeatedly posed with Clark on the campaign trail and touted Clark’s endorsements.
Clark also claimed that her group was scheduling fundraisers and helping film commercials for Dixon’s campaign.
“We’re working to still firm up her hard schedule for fundraisers and things like that,” Clark said at the Michigan women’s group meeting. “We’re going to make some commercials out of this kick-off. So we want everybody there with American flags and remember how our videos were in 2020 when we get our protest rallies and with all the thousands of flags? We want it to look like that because our team is going to make a commercial for Tudor.”
The Dixon campaign spokesperson said that all questions about “potential SUM commercials” should be directed to SUM.
Clark’s mention of “protest rallies” was a reference to demonstrations in the early pandemic, during which SUM members protested against anti-COVID measures and the state’s Democratic leaders. At those events and others, SUM members and leaders promoted conspiracy theories about the government and the 2020 election.
Clark has also personally promoted conspiracy theories. Her Facebook header picture shows her posing in the Infowars office during a December 2021 appearance on the program, where she discussed SUM. She has promoted fundraisers for Simone Gold, an anti-vaccine doctor convicted of storming the Capitol, and Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader whom Clark described as “friend and fellow freedom fighter” after his role in the Capitol attack. In March she posted pictures from “Leadership Training” with Stella Immanuel, a doctor who blames illnesses on demon sperm.
Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party (now an independent), said SUM’s involvement in the Dixon campaign reveals the state’s Republicans to be working with the right’s more radical elements.
“They try to maintain this veneer of plausibility, but Tudor Dixon has had Tammy Clark standing beside her at press conferences several times over the last couple months,” Timer told The Daily Beast. “This is someone they’re communicating with and working with, and who is an active part of their campaign.”
During the Oct. 11 meeting, Clark urged listeners to rally against ballot measures that would expand voting rights and protect abortion access. She described Democrats as pushing “wicked agendas” to promote a new world government.
“There is no low they will not stoop to,” Clark said. “They lie, they steal, they cheat. They are literally trying to deconstruct America and then make America part of a global, worldwide government. That’s what’s going on. These people are very nefarious.”
In a repeated refrain from past events, Clark called for an increased role of religion in government. “If the churches would simply understand that the role of the church is to lead and to participate in governance, then this country would continue to be the most amazing country in the world,” she said.
Clark has previously described SUM as engaging in “a spiritual war” against “demonic” foes, Salon reported.
Ultimately, Timmer said, Dixon is expected to lose her race. But groups like SUM are laying the groundwork to challenge the next election—the big one, for president.
Actors like SUM are “trying to subvert the entire election process so that ‘when we lose, we can claim it was rigged and help destabilize the next election,’ which is what they’re trying to do,” he said. “They know Tudor Dixon is likely to lose, but this is all about 2024.”
