Businessman Perry Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township), former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and pastor Ralph Rebandt took the stage in Auburn Hills for a gubernatorial debate, where President Donald Trump’s role in Michigan was central, even as candidates took aim at each other.
Hosted by the Oakland County Republican Party, the forum was held at Visioneering, an aerospace design firm in Auburn Hills. It was broadcast on CBS Detroit and on WWJ Newsradio 950.
Infighting among the candidates
Though the four candidates tended to agree on the policy outcomes they promote, an “open forum” portion of the debate devolved into the candidates repeatedly shouting over each other, to the point that candidates’ microphones had to be cut multiple times.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in response to a question about utility costs and how to hold utility companies accountable in the face of rate hikes.
“Are there any rules in this debate whatsoever?” Johnson at one point asked.
Solutions posed by the candidates included appointing new members to the Michigan Public Service Commission, which both Cox and Rebandt suggested, and preventing tax breaks for data center developers, put forward by Johnson.
Rebandt also attacked Nesbitt for taking money from DTE.
Candidates traded blows in response to questions about eliminating the state income tax, as many of the candidates in the race have proposed, and how to replace the revenue currently generated by income tax, as candidates jostled to be the one to speak on their respective plans.
Johnson emphasized his own experience as the self-described “Quality Guru” as making him the best candidate to make Michigan more efficient. He posed his plan for a “mega audit” as comparable to DOGE under Trump, adding that it is “the only way that we’re going to be able to eliminate the state income tax without having additional tax.”
“This is my business,” he said. “This is what I do for a living. I’m going to do it for the state of Michigan.”
But Cox criticized Johnson’s positioning that way.
“You can talk about reducing the size of government, but who’s actually done it? No one has on this stage, except for me. I’ve been in private business. It’s a lot easier to cut,” he said. “You’re talking about cutting jobs and sending them overseas.”
Rebandt also positioned himself as the outsider in the race, arguing that the rest of the field, coming from business and politics, had already failed to fix the issues in Michigan.
“If you look at the stage, the reason why I’m running is because we have career politicians. We have millionaires and billionaires who represent various stages of the economy. None of them listen. None of them have fixed Michigan,” he said. “I’m not one of them.”
Trump as a talking point in the debate
Asked if he believed his short-lived 2024 presidential bid would disqualify him from Trump’s eventual endorsement in the race, Johnson said, “I never expected to win. I went up there because I believed we needed to become more efficient. And by the way, President Trump obviously thought the same thing.”
Rebandt asked in response to Johnson’s statement, “It makes me wonder: Is he running for governor and not really expecting to win?”
Nesbitt, when asked if there were any lines that Trump could cross that he would disagree with, did not directly answer the question, but said that the governor should be “somebody that can join with President Trump.”
Cox, who was granted a rebuttal on that question, said that if Trump put troops on the ground in Iran, he would be “extremely disturbed” as the father of a Marine and a naval officer.
All eyes on an empty podium
Notably absent from the debate stage was U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Twp.), who has declined to attend multiple forums and debates, much to the criticism of his fellow candidates, as well as party leadership in Oakland County.
James announced on Wednesday that he would attend two televised debates in July. A press release from his campaign stated, “Throughout this campaign, John James has been consistent: he would debate when the field was set,” a message that James has made throughout the campaign in response to criticisms about his absence at early debates.
This is the first debate held after the filing and withdrawal deadlines for the August primary, which saw former Michigan House speaker Tom Leonard withdraw from the race.
Three of the four candidates present — all but Johnson — attacked James for his absence in their opening statements.
“I’m running for governor so that everybody can make it in Michigan,” Nesbitt said. “John James can’t even make it to Michigan.”
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