Michigan GOP Candidate Tom Barrett Allegedly Misled Black Voters

Michigan Legislative Black Caucus accuses Republican candidate Tom Barrett of misleading black voters in the 7th Congressional District race.

Unfortunately, there is a current National trend of election misinformation specifically targeting black voters.  The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus thinks that is what is going on with a recent ad for Republican candidate Tom Barrett.  Tom Barrett is a former Michigan state senator campaigning to represent the 7th Congressional District in Central Michigan. This is Tom's second time running for this seat as he lost to Elissa Slotkin two years ago.  Democrat Slotkin is running for U.S. Senate against Republican Mike Rogers while Barrett is running against Democrat Curtis Hertel for Slotkin's former seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.

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With the election coming up on Tuesday, November 5th, Barrett's campaign purchased a full-page ad with an important error according to the Washington Post,

...the full-page ad that appeared in the Oct. 2 issue of the Michigan Bulletin — a Lansing-based, Black-owned alternative weekly publication — is instead splashed with the phrase “On November 6 VOTE FOR TOM BARRETT.”

The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus filed a complaint with the state attorney general Sunday accusing "Barrett’s campaign of misleading Black voters to suppress turnout."  Barrett's campaign has admitted there was a mistake in proofreading and nothing more.  Marcus Jefferson, who runs the black-own publication that ran the ad with the incorrect date is taking steps to correct the matter on his end according to CNN,

Jefferson said he will be printing a new, corrected version of Barrett’s ad in the next edition of the paper on Wednesday. That paper will also feature an ad purchased by Hertel’s campaign.

Jefferson went on to say that he is "not in the business of misinforming my readership.”

To be clear, the 2024 Election is on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024.