Democratic support for Gotion cracking under public pressure as U.S. House votes unanimously to bar DHS use of its batteries – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

In a rather extraordinary turn of events, the U.S. House unanimously passed a bill Monday to bar the Department of Homeland Security from procuring electric vehicle batteries made by certain Chinese companies, including Gotion, which is named expressly in the bill.

Gotion is building similarly sized EV battery factories in Illinois and Michigan, both heavily subsidized by those states. Both face intense opposition for nearly identical reasons. The bill is intended to address national security risks arising from reliance on producers like Gotion that are tied to the Chinese Communist Party.

It’s a remarkable change for all Democratic House members to vote for the ban, especially representatives from Illinois and Michigan, given this background:

• Gotion’s Illinois and Michigan factories are pet projects of the respective Democratic governors, JB Pritzker and Gretchen Whitmer.
• They and Democratic lawmakers in both states heaped massive subsidies on the projects. Gotion is in the process of receiving subsidies of $536 million from Illinois, and state and local incentives in Michigan are estimated to total $715 million.
• Gotion is also in line to receive $7.5 billion of federal tax credits for the Illinois plant alone under the falsely labeled Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. That law passed both houses of Congress with Democratic votes only, and Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote in the Senate.

Think about that. Taxpayers are now subsidizing batteries, which they are being pressured to use in their vehicles, made by a Chinese company that House lawmakers unanimously agree is too big a risk for use for homeland security. The U.S. Department of Defense, by the way, already prohibited the military from purchasing batteries made by Gotion.

Why would Dems flipflop so spectacularly?

Because they see that voters may throw them out of office if they don’t.

In Michigan, a Republican Gotion critic, Mike Rogers, recently polled close enough in his race for the U.S. Senate to put the seat in the toss-up column, garnering national attention. That seems to have prompted his Democratic opponent, Elise Slotkin, to start questioning the Gotion project. Rogers in turn is accusing Slotkin of flipping on the issue, though Slotkin denies that and some polls still show her with a significant lead.

A Democratic candidate for the U.S. House from Michigan is also getting hammered for supporting the Gotion project, as in this video sponsored by the national Republican congressional campaign committee. The Democrat is Kristen McDonald Rivet, who is in an another tough race against Republican Paul Junge.

Both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance have seen it fit to capitalize on Gotion opposition, with both them speaking against it, making it a national issue, as reported by NBC recently.

Earlier in Michigan, in a sweeping recall, local voters threw out all officials in the township that had approved the Gotion project and replaced them with opponents. That alone should have “sent a big message,” as Politico wrote at the time.

Nobody should be surprised that political support for the Gotion projects is crumbling further. The deal was obviously foolish from the start, and polls in Illinois and Michigan have long shown overwhelming opposition, as we wrote back in November.

In Illinois, Pritzker expressly refuses to answer any questions about Gotion and Illinois reporters never ask.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

Wirepoints is following the Gotion controversy closely and all articles on it are collected here.