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.

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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.

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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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Leftist teacher goes crazy, bites woman at Tudor Dixon rally: Report



A public school teacher in Michigan allegedly attacked a woman at a rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, reports say.

On October 29, an unnamed teacher in the Dearborn Public Schools district attended a Dixon rally held at Armando's, a Mexican restaurant in southwest Detroit. Wearing a mask that read, "I'm speaking," the woman held up a sign in support of Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Cheryl Costantino, the Republican chairwoman of Wayne County, said that as the rally progressed, the woman slowly made her way toward the stage and began behaving erratically.

"She was acting so chaotic that I was worried she would go after the speakers or something or hurt somebody," Costantino stated.

It turns out that Costantino was right to be concerned. She has alleged that, shortly thereafter, the woman bit and pinched her in the arm.



"The top was a compression injury because of how hard her jaw bit me," Costantino said, describing her injuries. "So when it started swelling up, I couldn't even raise my arm, like it was even uncomfortable just to drive."

Bite marks Costantino says she sustained in the assaultScreen shot of WXYZ-TV video

Bruise Costantino allegedly sustained in the assaultScreen shot of WXYZ-TV video

The woman was then asked to leave, and men, likely security, attempted to escort her from the premises, but the woman attempted to stand her ground, according to Costantino.

"And she was slapping all these guys, and this guy was just trying to guide her out and ask her to leave, and she refused to leave, and she kept saying, ‘I have a ticket!'" Costantino said, according to Breitbart.

Linda Sawyer, a witness, claimed that when she confronted the woman about the assault, the woman more or less admitted it.

"I went to her and I said, 'You bit Cheryl.' And she said, 'Yeah, well,'" Sawyer said.

"Like she was proud of it," Sawyer added.

Elisa Wagner, a local precinct delegate, then began filming the woman, who by that time had grabbed a serving tray holder and, in Costantino's words, held "it like a weapon."

Portions of Wagner's video can be seen in the WXYZ-TV news segment, though the woman's face has been obscured.

Screen shot of WXYZ-TV video



Alleged attackerScreen shot of WXYZ-TV video

Costantino filed a report with the Detroit Police Department, and Wagner accompanied her as a witness and corroborated her story. Police are still considering whether to file charges, pending further investigation.

WXYZ-TV has confirmed that the woman teaches in the Dearborn Public Schools. The district released a statement following the allegations:

"The Dearborn Public Schools is in the process of conducting an investigation to gather all the facts associated with this alleged incident and determine if there were any violations of board policy."

"I don't understand who would trust someone like that with their children," Costantino, who is also a teacher, said. "And why would a school open themselves up to liability by keeping an employee who would act like that?"

Dixon herself has tweeted about the incident and asked Whitmer to "condemn" it:

\u201cWill @gretchenwhitmer condemn the actions of her supporter?\u201d
— Tudor Dixon (@Tudor Dixon) 1667083371

Dixon, her running mate, Shane Hernandez, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who has endorsed Dixon, were all in attendance at the rally.

Stephen Colbert spreads misinformation ahead of elections, gets called out for his 'absolute ignorance' by man he claimed Tudor Dixon invented



Stephen Colbert suggested last week that Tudor Dixon was a liar. The host of CBS' "The Late Show" said that the Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate had referenced a "totally made up" man in her Oct. 25 debate with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

That man, a former Democratic candidate who changed parties earlier this year to join the Republican fight against the sexualization of children, is real. He has since come forward, revealing that it is Colbert, not Dixon, who has an estranged relationship with the truth.

The accusation

On Oct. 26, Colbert discussed the Michigan governor's debate during his monologue on "The Late Show."

The corporate script reader ridiculed Dixon, calling her an "anti-choice, MAGA Republican" whose views are not allegedly popular in Michigan — a state where 47.8% of voters supported former President Donald Trump in 2020.

Colbert zeroed in on two clips from the debate in which Dixon advocated for shielding children from inappropriate content in schools.

Dixon said in the first clip: "If you have material in your school that is something you can't read to a child at a bus stop because you would be arrested, because it is pornographic, then it should not be in our classrooms."

In the second clip, Dixon noted, "I had a gentleman come up to me just a few nights ago, and he said, 'I found content in my school library describing how to have sex to my son.' I went to the Democrats and I said, 'I cannot believe that this is in there.'"

Colbert claimed that Dixon had "totally made up" the individual in her story and sarcastically added, "That totally happened."

Colbert further questioned why a concerned parent would turn to a Democrat for help in the first place, discounting that eight of ten members of the state board of education are Democrats and that local partisans (e.g., on the Dearborn City Board of Education) would also have influence over the content available in schools and libraries.

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Colbert's 'absolute ignorance'

The Detroit Free Press reported that 41-year-old Khalil Othman came forward as the man whose existence Colbert denied last week.

Othman told the Free Press, "To claim that I'm not here, I don't exist, I'm not human, that's absolute ignorance."

"If this person did his due diligence and start researching or has his team do a little bit of research of who's this person who attended Dixon's rally, they will be able to find my name right away, easy, on social media. Just Google it," said Othman.

Contrary to Colbert's suggestion, Othman had in fact raised his concerns to Democrats at a Dearborn school board meeting on Oct. 13. That totally happened.

Othman also attended the Dixon campaign rally on Oct. 21, where he lauded Dixon for her efforts to protect children and indicated that he and his family would now vote Republican.

Othman had run as a Democrat for election to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent District 3 and lost his primary on Aug. 2.

In an Oct. 21 Facebook post, Othman wrote, "Ever since immigrating to this great country almost 20 years ago, I've been a loyal Democrat. Never once did I ever vote Republican. However, the situation with the sexually explicit material in the schools was a for me a bridge too far."

The sexually explicit books targeting children that Democrat Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) support are the same that prompted Othman to switch parties.

"When it comes to my kids and my family, I will not budge. Family before party!" added Othman.

Othman called out Colbert for his remarks, writing, "Stephen is trying to save Governor Whitmer's sinking ship by launching false attack on Tudor Dixon. ... Cheap shot and it won't help Governor Whitmer's dying campaign."

Dixon joined Othman in criticizing Colbert for denying the man's existence, saying at a Oct. 30 rally in Dearborn, "I told his story ... and Stephen Colbert picks it up. ... And they make this whole skit about how this has never happened. That's what he said, this story never happened."

"That's where the Democrats are right now," said Dixon. "You don't exist, your stories are not important."

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