JR Afternoon with Chris Renwick
The Race For Michigan Governor Is On
So come twenty twenty six governor Gretchen Whitmer will be termed out and it will clear the way for a governor's race in Michigan where I got to tell you it feels like there's going to be a bunch of names thrown into hat particularly on the democratic side of things and Mayor Mike Duggan announced this week that he was not going to seek reelection for his current job but has kept close to the vest what his future political plans or aspirations are leaving many of us to wonder what they might be and I think a logical next step for him would be to run for governor and considering the strength and where Michigan or Detroit has come over the last fifteen years under his direction feels pretty good and it feels like that that he would be very much at the top of that pedestal for Democrats but there certainly are others and then on the republican side of things questions are there as well it's bringing to Craig Magra the state politics reporter with the Detroit news Craig my friend it's good to have you back these next couple of years is going to be really interesting as those behind the scenes kind of jockey for for for that extra leg up when the gubernatorial race rolls around. Yeah your spot on thanks for having me I mean people need to remember that these races get started very quickly I just pulled this up because I was trying to remember the exact date but governor Whitmer when she ran the first time in 2018 you remember when she launched her bid formally for governor it was January 3rd 2017 so compared to this cycle that would mean you know January 3rd 2025 which is a couple months away so I mean you can very likely expect some of these candidates to start jumping in this race in the next few months and especially in a year like this where it's going to be so wide open and and you know we expect a lot of candidates you know the earlier you get in the bigger advantage you have to start fundraising and start trying to lock him down all your supporters. So you put together a pretty comprehensive piece and I would urge people to head over to DetroitNews.com and take a look aside from Mike Duggan which again makes a lot of sense I think we've always kind of thought that Jocelyn Benson the secretary of state had had gubernatorial aspirations you've got the lieutenant governor Garland Gilchrist certainly in that mix as well one name that did jump out to me which I thought was entering interesting was the Sheriff of Genesee County Chris Swanson who came forward and became politically active over this presidential campaign for Kamala Harris and did commercials for her here in the state of Michigan what do you make of of his political aspirations I mean I think I think he's a person that kind of that has a bright political future really I mean a lot of Democrats are excited about him they're not certain weather he'll be able to you know form the momentum and movement that you need to run for governor but but he's he is definitely a person to watch I mean I was fascinated by the fact that he over performed Kamala Harris in his county by something like 20,000 votes I mean more people voted for him down ballot than voted for Harris at the top of the ballot usually as you go down the ballot you lose voters because people just a lot of people just want to vote for president so I mean that's pretty impressive I mean and he's got this law enforcement background that he could bring to their race he spoke at the Democratic National Convention he's been trying to raise his name ID you know statewide he's from a county not one of the largest counties in the state Genesee but a pretty large county but he's got to find a way to reach people in other places across Michigan I think largely Democrats have looked at this race for over a year as as the contest heavily focused on dug-in and Vincent I mean they seem to be on a collision course and then you have a bunch of other people that are potential ex-factors in this race like Sheriff Swanson like Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist and like somebody the current transportation secretary for the United States Pete Buttigieg people are kind of watching to see what he's going to do he could really disrupt this race that he got in it yeah so I think Pete Buttigieg is a really really interesting observation by you because so he's what 42 or 43 very young guy and was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana and ascended to a transportation secretary with Joe Biden moved to Michigan which is an interesting move his husband is from Michigan so they live up north but but for somebody so young that is so astute somebody well spoken somebody who I think that maybe those moderate Democrats would really rally behind it's it's very interesting when you consider how old he is and now the gap right because once Joe Biden leaves office he's out of a job and I can't imagine Pete Buttigieg is just going to you know blend into the background like the Homer Simpson meme I don't think he's going back into the shrubbery I my guess is he wants to remain a focus here so it feels like the Pete Buttigieg angle is a really interesting one yeah and I I was a person for for probably the last year who was kind of dismissive of this idea I did not think that you know this is something that he would likely do but one of my colleagues in the Capitol press court Joey Capiletti from the Associated Press got to ask him some questions in recent weeks and asked him specifically about potentially running for governor and he did not reject the idea you know you would think you know he might say no that's not something that I would do if he wasn't considering it at all but to kind of leave the door open to it is significant and there will be people you know in Michigan who instantaneously would say well he hasn't lived here this long you know I I would counter that that's not really how politics works in 2024 if you surveyed the people in Michigan I have a feeling that a lot of Democratic primary voters know who Pete Buttigieg is and already have an opinion about him he is someone that has run for president before and South Bend is not that far away from the Michigan Indiana line there I think that if you when you look at the the left side of what potentially that could look like there's a lot of heavy hitters there on the on the Republican side of things I think your left may be a little thin um you mentioned Tudor Dickson who lost to Gretchen Whitmer in 2022 Kevin Ranky uh lost in his primary battle to Tudor Dickson Perry Johnson as somebody else who you threw out I thought the the two that make the most sense to me is Tom Leonard Leonard the former speaker of the house and Eric Nesbit the Senate minority leader currently um those two names seem like something that that would stand out uh as being uh probably Republicans best efforts here in the state yeah and you left off one of the names uh I think one of the bigger names here could potentially be John James the current house member who represents a portion of McComb and McComb and Oakland he's one of those people that I think Republican candidates will be watching other people that might get in this race won't want to get in this race if John James isn't in it and who knows if how serious representative James is about considering uh of this but I have here heard so many rumbling that this is something that he really wants to do that is something he is interested in um he wants to hold an executive position I've been told previously by people close to him uh maybe that changes after he you know wins another term in the US house and he's now you know in a in a majority where he'll probably play a pretty key role maybe that's changed but who knows I think he is the name to watch and Tom Leonard and Eric Nesbit are definitely people that have positioned themselves where they could could raise the money needed to run a campaign for governor they have all these connections with the power brokers of the Republican Party um and they they could they could put together some substantial campaigns I would think I um I thought that the the the what happened in this presidential election I think when you look at around the country even here in Michigan Donald Trump doing much better in in darn near every county um I thought it was a rejection of where the left's political stances are and and I thought that it was a pushback on some of their policy stances how does what the Democratic Party in their autopsy of this presidential election how they might evolve over the next couple of years then it's going to be a midterm election how does all of that fair and and and factor in to what we could see in two years here I mean it's a fantastic question I think that one of that dynamics that I would talk about is that there's been a change here it used to be that Republicans did better in gubernatorial elections in Michigan when the turnout was a little bit lower and it was Democrats in the presidential election who were finding every way to try to get there I'm going to throw a phrase that people have probably heard a lot lately low propensity voters people that don't turn out that often to the polls that used to be Michigan politics Democrats had benefited from the higher turnout it seems like now we're in a situation where the higher turnout elections might actually benefit Republicans and they're the ones that are going to have to figure out how to get the voters that turned out on November 5th or Donald Trump how do they get those people to turn out in November 2026 when the turnout is going to be lower and and a lot of people it will not get the media attention that the presidential election no so that's the challenge that they face and if they can find a way to channel that group of voters they now have data on them they know who those people are they know who are the persuadable voters they have all that information if they can get those people to turn out they have a real chance in the right I think Republicans can steal the line when we vote we win it's a it's an interesting perspective Craig Morgan always good to talk with you my friend thanks for your time hey thanks for having me yep you got it we'll take a break more next on jr afternoon
November 14, 2024 ~ Chris checks in with Craig Mauger, State Politics Reporter for The Detroit News about the 12 people most likely to toss their hat in the Gubernatorial ring.