FILE - Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon appears at a primary election party in Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

During a remote meeting with the Michigan Chinese Conservative Alliance in February, GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon suggested that critical race theory is causing mass shootings.

“I’m talking about parents. Because in most, almost all of these cases, we see what we saw most recently in Oxford where there was a warning sign, and we’ve become really lax about allowing parents to bend the rules on those contracts they’re signing,” then-primary election candidate Dixon said when asked about preventing gun violence in schools. “Our schools have become so lax on allowing this, allowing parents to break the contract and then extend the rules or change the wording or allowing them to have a child that is in desperate need of help to go back into a classroom. And then tragedy happens. So, we need to see be seeing this ahead of time, and we need to have training. Instead of doing all this critical race training, how about we have training on spotting an emergency before it happens?”

While there did seem to be signs the Oxford shooter was exhibiting mental health concerns prior to the shooting, it is unclear why Dixon contrasted this with “critical race training.” When asked to clarify her comments, Dixon’s campaign did not deny or walk back the claim. Instead, a campaign representative responded with calls to remove all “diversity/equity/inclusion” consultants and replace them with armed security guards.

“Tudor Dixon is a Constitutionalist and supports Constitutional Carry,” the representative said in an email. “Regarding school safety, she has called for all so-called ‘diversity/equity/inclusion’ consultants and administrators in public schools to be cut and the funding for their positions to be repurposed and used for armed school security. She also proposed using one-time federal COVID relief funds to harden schools through increased security features and planning.”

Education has been one of Dixon’s main campaign issues, and a call to “preserve parent’s rights” is her second point on her campaign website’s “Education” page. Dixon is trying to defeat incumbent Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November, and recent polling suggests anywhere between a one-point and a 17-point lead for Whitmer.