John James nets GOP nomination, will go head-to-head with Jocelyn Benson in November

U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Twp.) took home the Republican nomination in the gubernatorial race, with the Associated Press calling the race at 10:24 p.m. At that time, unofficial results showed James up by 14 points over his sole remaining primary opponent, Perry Johnson. 

“Michigan is on fire. I’ve always run toward the fire. This November, the choice will be clear. We offer freedom, they offer socialism. We offer change, they offer control. We offer common sense, they offer crazy. Don’t ever underestimate how pain and desperation make false promises sound like hope,” James said to supporters in a victory speech. “It means we must listen to people failed by the status quo and answer their pain with solutions that actually work.”

He focused his speech on combatting “socialism” in Michigan.

“Tonight, I ask every Michigander: Republican, Democrat, Independent, none of the above, I don’t care. Join us,” he continued. “This is bigger than any one party. We are all Michiganders, and we’re all one nation under God.”

James will now face Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who easily won the Democratic primary, in November’s general election.

James’ largest leads were in Mason County and Genesee County, while Johnson led in Lake County and Barry County.

James enjoyed the backing of much of the party establishment, including President Donald Trump, whose endorsement in June pushed both Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt and former Attorney General Mike Cox out of the race. 

Cox, despite dropping out of the race in mid-July, had 12.5% of the vote as of 10:30 p.m., while Johnson had 36%.

Trump visited Michigan the week before the primary to rally with James, along with other Republican candidates, and his campaign’s social media account called Johnson a “never Trumper” over an event that he hosted simultaneously with the president’s rally that was branded as a “Trump Tailgate,” despite not being the endorsed candidate. 

But Johnson rallied significant grassroots support, especially after Nesbitt and Cox dropped out of the race prior to the primary election. That also included some local support, especially from the Oakland County GOP — the state’s largest Republican party county organization — where the chair and vice chair, Vance Patrick and Terri Nallamothu, endorsed Johnson in a move that drew the ire of state party leadership, specifically Michigan GOP Chairman Sen. Jim Runestad.

Johnson self-funded his campaign, funnelling around $30 million of his own personal money into the race, a move that he claimed made him less beholden to corporate donors than James. 

Meanwhile, James goes into the general election with around $1.4 million cash on hand, according to campaign finance filings from late July. Mission Michigan, the PAC backing James, has an additional $1.9 million cash on hand. 

Johnson said after a debate in Grand Rapids that he would support whoever the party elected in the primary.

Benson wins Dem nomination wire-to-wire

The Democratic side of the race was far less competitive, with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson taking a nearly 70-point lead over Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson in a primary that she was widely considered the frontrunner to win. The race was called by the Associated Press at 9 p.m., just after the last polls in the state closed.

Benson consistently held a commanding lead in polls in advance of the primary, with polling from earlier in July giving her a 60-point margin over Swanson. 

She similarly outperformed Swanson in fundraising. During the reporting period beginning Jan. 1, Swanson raised just over $722,000 and spent around $806,000, leaving him with about $187,000 in cash on hand. Meanwhile, Benson raised $4.9 million and spent $2.1 million, and has over $6.4 million in cash on hand heading into the general election.

The general election was initially expected to be a three-way race, with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan running as an independent, but he dropped out in May. Though he had been pulling support from both Democrats and Republicans, some had been concerned about him playing spoiler for the Democrats in a general election, given the fact that Duggan was a Democrat for all 12 years in the Detroit mayor’s office. 

However, with Duggan no longer in the picture, Republicans will have to figure out how to singlehandedly tackle Benson, who enters with more money on hand and without the baggage of facing the primary attacks that Republicans have been levying at each other for months. 

Three recent polls show Benson winning over both James and Johnson, though her margins were wider over Johnson than James. However, some in the Republican Party, including consultant Dennis Lennox, have argued that Johnson’s access to significant self-funding and his grassroots momentum would have done more to boost down-ballot candidates in the state legislature than James will do.