These 5 GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Made The Ballot In A Chaotic Michigan Primary. Now They’re Vying For A Chance To Unseat Gretchen Whitmer.
The Michigan Republican gubernatorial primary was thrown into chaos in recent weeks as voters in the Great Lakes State have just over a month to decide who will get their nod for the nomination.
Two of the favorites to win the GOP primary were former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and businessman Perry Johnson, but fraudulent petition signatures disqualified them, along with three other GOP candidates, from appearing on the August 2 primary ballot.
Now, in a race blown wide open, the five candidates who qualified for the ballot have been cast into the spotlight. So who are these Michigan Republican candidates vying for a chance to unseat Gretchen Whitmer (D), one of the most well-known governors in the country?
Ryan Kelley
Ryan Kelley Campaign
No candidate in the chaotic Michigan primary race has been through more controversy and drama in the last month than Ryan Kelley. On June 9, the Grand Rapids-area real estate broker was arrested by the FBI at his home in connection to his presence at the January 6 Capitol riot in Washington D.C. Days later, a federal judge ordered him to surrender his guns as he awaits trial for misdemeanor charges.
But the recent events surrounding Kelley have not distracted him from staying focused on the race, and the latest polling shows him as the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
Kelley is running for governor not only because he wants Michigan to improve, but also because he believes the entire country is heading in a bad direction.
“I’m in this race because I love this country,” he told The Daily Wire. “I love our republic. I want to fight for our Constitution and for freedom for the next generation.”
During the COVID pandemic and Whitmer’s ensuing lockdowns, Kelley led protests and rallies against the governor’s measures — another reason he cited for jumping into the race. “You get Gretchen Whitmer back in there, you can expect more of the same and without concern of having to be reelected again at any point in the future,” he argued.
Kelley understands the path to defeating an incumbent governor is not easy. It’s been nearly 60 years since a Michigan governor lost a reelection bid after one term, but he remains hopeful that voters will look poorly on Whitmer’s actions over her first term.
“If there’s any time in our history as a state that an incumbent governor could be unseated, now is that time because of the events that have unfolded over the past few years,” Kelley said.
Garrett Soldano
Garrett Soldano Campaign
When the Whitmer administration took one of the strictest approaches of any state to respond to the COVID pandemic, Garrett Soldano organized a movement to oppose the lockdowns. Thousands of supporters joined the Kalamazoo chiropractor through Facebook and his group Stand Up Michigan to voice their opposition to Whitmer’s orders.
Soldano admitted that when he first announced his campaign for governor, he knew it was a long shot. But now, he believes the momentum from his movement will help propel him to the Republican nomination and give him the best chance to defeat Whitmer, who he says voters want held responsible for the state’s economic and infrastructure struggles.
“You’re not going to beat Governor Whitmer on policy,” he said. “You’re not going to get on stage with Governor Whitmer and say you’re going to fix the gosh darn roads better. It’s accountability time.”
Soldano places a strong emphasis on improving schools in the state, specifically by encouraging parents to get involved in their children’s education.
“We don’t have a teacher problem,” Soldano said. “We’re not going to allow a few bad apples to spoil the whole bunch.” Instead, he sees the solution to the problem in schools is getting more parents “involved” and “engaged” with their children’s education.
Soldano has also delved into the culture war, criticizing radical gender theory being aimed at children.
“This gender theory and sexual theory that’s being taught in schools, you have no right to do that,” he said. “If you want to teach my kid critical anything, you teach him critical thinking, critical math, critical reading. You can teach my kid how to critically think, not what to think.”
Kevin Rinke
Kevin Rinke Campaign
Businessman Kevin Rinke jumped into the GOP gubernatorial primary because he’s sick of what he sees as historic government failure. “I have never seen government dysfunction like I have seen under the Whitmer administration,” he told The Daily Wire.
Rinke’s main concern is with the state’s approach to the economy, both from the fallout of harsh COVID lockdowns and the state’s taxes levied against citizens and businesses. He said it was “either leave the state of Michigan like 16,000 other people did last year under [Whitmer’s] leadership,
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