Rep. John James hammers Michigan GOP over political failures: 'What are we even talking about?'



Republican candidates have not fared well lately in key races in one of the most important swing states in the country: Michigan. Rep. John James (R) of Michigan did not mince words when talking to Blaze News about their lackluster performances, insisting that they demonstrate why he should be the party's nominee for the open governor race in 2026.

James, 43, rose to national prominence in 2018, when he unsuccessfully attempted to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has since retired. Two years later, James lost another Senate race, this time to incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

In January, Peters unexpectedly announced that he would not seek another term, prompting some to speculate that James, who was elected in 2022 to represent the 10th Congressional District of Michigan and re-elected in 2024, might make another run for the Senate.

However, James made a surprise move of his own, announcing in early April that he would make a bid for Michigan governor instead.

'Michigan's a state that deserves to have a leader who's been knocked down a couple times and refuses to give up.'

Last week, James sat down with Blaze News and explained that his breadth of experience in the business world and in combat has prepared him for executive leadership.

"The time that I've had as a legislator, as a lawmaker, as a representative has actually been the longest period of my life that I haven't been in an executive role," he stated.

"I'm a combat veteran, and I led two Apache platoons," continued James, a Ranger-qualified aviation officer who served in operations in Iraq from 2007 to 2009, according to his congressional website.

"I understand what it takes to keep Americans safe because I've done it before."

James also noted that in the last several years, Republican candidates in Michigan have lost winnable races. To demonstrate, he referred to then-Attorney General Bill Schuette's failed gubernatorial bid against former state Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2018, followed by Tudor Dixon's loss to Whitmer in 2022 despite Whitmer's questionable track record regarding COVID lockdowns and nursing home deaths.

James warned that if that "circular firing squad" continues among Michigan Republicans, a leftist could succeed Whitmer next year.

"We can be cute, we can talk, but if you can't win, what are we even talking about?" James asked rhetorically. "If we're not going to put the strongest candidate at the top of the ticket, what are we even talking about?"

Schuette and the Michigan Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.

RELATED: Mike Rogers launches Senate campaign to replace retiring Democrat

 Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Tudor Dixon, who has teased another run for governor as well as a possible Senate bid, quickly fired back against James' provocative remarks.

"It's interesting to see a declared candidate lashing out at someone who has not even announced a run for office yet," Dixon said in a statement to Blaze News. "I will not comment on his two statewide failures, but instead recommend he start to share his plans about how to make people's lives here in Michigan better."

When Blaze News pressed James about his failed senatorial bids, he explained that unseating an incumbent is particularly challenging. Since Whitmer is term-limited, he believes he has a good shot of winning the governorship, especially after eight years of her radical policies.

He also admitted to Blaze News that he learned some valuable lessons from those disappointing electoral losses. "Number one, don't run during a global pandemic," he said, referring to the 2020 race against Peters.

James added that even though he didn't win, those two U.S. Senate races did provide some unforeseen benefits: statewide name recognition as well as the opportunity to demonstrate to voters his fortitude and toughness.

"Michigan's a state that deserves to have a leader who's been knocked down a couple times and refuses to give up," he said.

For now, James has much in his favor. Though state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton), who has also announced his candidacy for governor, is likewise a well-known name and may give him fits in the Republican primary, at the moment, much of the state media attention has been focused on the campaign missteps of Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

RELATED: 16 noncitizens apparently voted in Michigan in 2024 — and liberals are cheering about it

 Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

James also pointed out that he has long-standing ties to President Donald Trump, who carried Michigan handily in the 2024 presidential election and who endorsed James in his previous runs for Senate and Congress. However, at least one Michigan-based Republican communications operative disputed the strength of James' current relationship with Trump, suggesting to Blaze News that it has been "shaky" recently.

So far, Trump has not weighed in on the upcoming gubernatorial race in Michigan. When Blaze News asked James whether he has discussed the topic of endorsement with Trump lately, James deftly changed the subject to his current focus of helping the president pass the "big, beautiful bill" in the House.

"We as Republicans, we have the best ideas. We have the best policies — and they work," he said.

"But none of it makes a lick of difference if ... we don't elect the candidate who can win."

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Chinese national accused of voting in US election skips hearing, prompting bench warrant



A Chinese national accused of voting in the 2024 election in Michigan now faces a bench warrant after he failed to attend a hearing last week.

Haoxiang Gao, a 20-year-old Chinese national with a green card, was supposed to show up for a hearing in district court on Thursday but never appeared, prompting Judge J. Cedric Simpson to issue a bench warrant for his arrest. Simpson decided to issue the bench warrant after conferring with Gao's lawyer, K. Orlando Simón.

'We have copies of the voter registration form that both includes a checked box and an affirming statement of citizenship.'

Gao's legal ordeal began back on October 27 at the University of Michigan, where he apparently registered to vote and cast a ballot on the same day. He used his UM student ID card to prove local residency, Michigan Enjoyer learned after submitting several public information requests about the incident.

He must have had some misgivings about his actions because he then called the Ann Arbor clerk's office, inquiring about whether green-card holders were eligible to vote. When the staff member explained that green-card holders were ineligible to vote, Gao allegedly claimed he knew of someone who had voted using their green card at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Gao then called the clerk's office back 20 minutes later and admitted that he was the person who had voted and that he had "lied on the forms and attested to being a U.S. citizen," according to an email from Ann Arbor clerk Jacqueline Beaudry.

"We have copies of the voter registration form that both includes a checked box and an affirming statement of citizenship," Beaudry wrote. "We have the application to vote as well."

The following day, Gao arrived at the clerk's office looking "very upset" and claiming to have fessed up to local law enforcement, Beaudry added. Staff at the office claimed they couldn't do anything for him and suggested he find legal counsel.

It was sage advice. Gao was later charged with perjury and being an unauthorized elector who attempted to vote, both felonies. At his arraignment in November, Gao "stood mute," meaning he did not enter a specific plea, the Detroit News reported at the time.

Now with a bench warrant against him, law enforcement officers are compelled to arrest Gao, should they encounter him. As of Friday, no follow-up hearing for Gao had been scheduled.

At the moment, it's unclear where he is. Both Simón, Gao's attorney, and the University of Michigan’s Student Legal Services declined a request for comment from Votebeat, while UM and the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

'This young man’s case is what showed our entire nation the giant loophole in Michigan's election laws that allow non-citizens to vote.'

Gao is one of 16 noncitizens believed to have voted in Michigan last fall, according to an audit. Leftists like Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — now running to replace Gretchen Whitmer as governor — celebrated the results of the audit as evidence that the system works as designed.

Such instances "represent 0.00028% of the more than 5.7 million votes cast by Michiganders in the presidential election," Benson insisted, even though she testified before Congress in September that "there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting."

However, focusing solely on the presidential election, as Benson and others have done, basically ignores the more competitive races down ballot where noncitizen votes could have greater impact. In fact, a 2024 state race in Maine was decided by just a single vote, and dozens of other state-level races across the country were decided by 100 votes or fewer.

State Rep. Bryan Posthumus (R-Rockford) — who has already proposed a constitutional amendment that would require prospective voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register and when they go to cast a ballot — believes Gao's case represents a much wider problem regarding election integrity in Michigan.

"This young man’s case is what showed our entire nation the giant loophole in Michigan's election laws that allow non-citizens to vote," Posthumus said in a statement to Blaze News.

"We now know definitively that non-citizens have voted in our elections and are voting in our elections. Law enforcement will handle this fugitive, while my part will be to close the gap by amending our state constitution to require proof of citizenship."

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EXCLUSIVE: Election Integrity Watchdog Releases Scathing Report On Michigan Secretary Of State

Undermined 'the confidence of voters in Michigan'

Michigan Secretary Of State Discovers 15 Possible Noncitizen Voters, Insists It’s No Big Deal

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson claims noncitizen voting is "very rare," despite permissive practices enabling it in the past.

16 noncitizens apparently voted in Michigan in 2024 — and liberals are cheering about it



Michigan Democrats and liberal media are celebrating a report that revealed more than a dozen noncitizens may have cast a ballot in the November election.

On Thursday, Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson — whose campaign for governor has already gotten off to a sloppy start — released a press release about the report entitled "Michigan Department of State review confirms instances of noncitizen voting are extremely rare."

The report, which is based on an audit launched in December, actually begins with a misleading statement, claiming "15 credible cases" of noncitizens voting had been "identified." However, the press release later admits that 16 cases had actually been identified, noting that "a Chinese national" also allegedly voted illegally, a case that made national headlines last fall.

Of these 16 cases, all but two have been referred for possible prosecution. One of the noncitizens who allegedly voted in November has since died, and another case remains under further investigation.

The press release suggests that 16 alleged instances of noncitizens voting proves the system works as they "represent 0.00028% of the more than 5.7 million votes cast by Michiganders in the presidential election."

The Chinese national who allegedly admitted to voting in November ... did so by allegedly offering his University of Michigan student ID card.

Benson — who just last September testified before Congress that "there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting" — seemed pleased about the report. She claimed that these cases represent a "tiny fraction" of voters and hinted that further efforts to secure our elections are unnecessary and would only disenfranchise legitimate voters.

"This is a serious issue, one we must address with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer," Benson said in a statement.

Her fellow Democrats similarly hailed the news. The Michigan Democratic Party claimed the audit "confirm[s] the security of the 2024 election."

"Democrats are proud to be the only party of election integrity and of defending our democracy. This months-long review is telling us what we already know: Michigan’s elections can be safe and secure without sacrificing access to the ballot box," said a statement from group chair Curtis Hertel.

Even media outlets like Mid-Michigan Now dutifully parroted the idea that "cases of noncitizens casting a ballot are extremely rare."

By contrast, Republican state Rep. Bryan Posthumus of Rockford is appalled that Democrats are so cavalier about noncitizens voting in Michigan elections.

"First it was 1, now it's 15. The truth is, we have no idea how many," he posted to social media.

What's more, while Benson's press release and the media have focused mainly on the 2024 presidential election in Michigan — which President Donald Trump won by a margin of about 80,000 — they have basically ignored the more competitive races down ballot where noncitizen votes could have greater impact.

For instance, the U.S. Senate race in Michigan was razor thin. Democratic candidate Elissa Slotkin prevailed over Republican Mike Rogers by just .3% of the vote, or fewer than 20,000 votes.

Posthumus told Blaze News that in 2022, a state House race was decided by just 12 votes. "This would have swung that election," he said, referring to the 16 alleged noncitizen voters.

According to Ballotpedia, such tight races are not that uncommon. In 2024 alone, more than 60 state-level races across the country were decided by 100 votes or fewer, including a Maine race in which a Republican state representative prevailed by just a single vote.

Posthumus also pointed to the hotly contested 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and then-Vice President Al Gore. After weeks of recounts and legal wrangling, Bush carried the state of Florida — and therefore the election — by under 550 votes.

"Democrats are trying to just make this as a one-off situation that doesn't have any real implications," Posthumus explained to Blaze News. "It really does."

Posthumus is currently crafting a state constitutional amendment proposal that would require prospective voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register as well as when they vote, and he hopes that Democrats will join him in this endeavor. Polling indicates that voters on both sides of the aisle support securing our elections.

"Nearly 85% of the population agrees," Posthumus said, "only U.S. citizens should vote in our elections, and photo ID should be required when you cast your ballot."

Michigan law restricts voting to U.S. citizens only, but as Posthumus noted on social media, the system is vulnerable to exploitation. For instance, the Chinese national who allegedly admitted to voting in November, Haoxiang Gao, did so by allegedly offering his University of Michigan student ID card as proof of local residency.

The application for a Michigan driver's license also indicates that applicants will be automatically registered to vote. To forestall this automatic registration, applicants must deliberately check a box asking officials not to use their "information for voter registration," a 2019 application version showed.

Michigan Democrats have recently lobbied hard to permit illegal aliens living in the state to be given driver's licenses.

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