It’s been many a moon since Michigan Republicans have put up any sort of legitimate candidate for U.S. Senate. In 1996, Ronna Romney, the mother of RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, got crushed by Carl Levin who had trounced Bill Schuette six years before. He went on to beat Rocky Raczkowski and Jack Hoogendyk before retiring. The seat is now held by Democrat Gary Peters who crushed Terri Lynn Land, arguably the worst candidate to ever run for this seat. After beating incumbent Spencer Abraham in 2000, Debbie Stabenow went on to beat Mike Bouchard, Pete “Yellow GirlYellow Girl” Hoekstra, and, last cycle, John James.
Well, you may not know this but James is back. After scrubbing the internet as clean as possible of any trace of his last failed campaign, he’s the leading Republican vying to run against Gary Peters this year. I say that you may not know that James — the man who palled around with the likes of Lev Parnas last fall — is running because, according to the website John James Revealed, as of today, James hasn’t made a television appearance on a Michigan station in 334 days. He hasn’t given a print media interview in 228 days.
He has, however, traveled the country courting the most far right, corporatist groups you could imagine. Here’s a graphic put together by the fine folks at John James Revealed that shows all the fundraising and schmoozing stops he’s made just about everywhere but Michigan:
Thanks to these road trips, James has racked up endorsements from the American Conservative Union (part of the Koch brothers’ State Policy Network), the Senate Conservatives Fund, and FreedomWorks (also part of the Koch brothers’ State Policy Network) along with other wealthy donors.
But what has not done is spend any time courting voters in Michigan.
Meanwhile, Gary Peters has been fighting for justice in Flint, accountability in the PFAS fiasco that has poisoned water across the state and across the country, and has been working hard to ensure a vastly improved federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s not a difficult choice for Michigan in 2020 in the U.S. Senate race: An inexperienced grifter relying on conservative/corporatist financial backing, his opposition to the life-saving Affordable Care Act, and his “2000 percent” approval of Donald Trump versus a known fighter on behalf of average Michiganders. If you want to be sure Gary Peters keeps his seat in the U.S. Senate, swing by his web page HERE and make a donation. We can’t afford to lose a single seat in the Senate this year and Gary Peters is up against a Republican money machine that cannot be underestimated.
