With less than a week to go before election day, the two Republicans running to be Michigan’s next governor barnstormed across the state Thursday to make some of their final pitches to voters.
A new Emerson College poll of 350 likely Republican voters say Congressman John James and businessman Perry Johnson are locked in a close race.
James leads Johnson by eight points (40%-32%) in the poll, with 17% of the voters saying they’re still undecided.
President Trump has endorsed James in the race, but Johnson is confident.
At a meet and greet event in Midland, Johnson said Trump's advisors have picked losing gubernatorial candidates over the last few months.
"His advisors told him to endorse someone, and the person in Iowa lost. His advisors told him to endorse someone over there in Georgia, and that person for governor lost,” Johnson said, referring to Congressman Randy Feenstra of Iowa and Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
“His advisors told him in South Carolina to endorse the person, and they lost also."
Trump initially endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette in South Carolina's gubernatorial race. But she lost in a run-off to state AG Alan Wilson, where Trump endorsed both candidates.
In Hudsonville, James met with farmers and food processors during a roundtable event with agriculture leaders. Many voiced concerns over rising diesel and fertilizer costs and said they’re concerned about losing farmland to energy development. They also accused the state’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) of overreaching their regulatory power on their operations.
James promised to restructure the department if elected governor.
“We’re going to be addressing those [concerns] on day one,” James said. “EGLE needs to focus on helping, being more customer service oriented and focusing more on conservation and stewardship than protectionism.”
Johnson has promised to end the state income tax and audit state agencies to find waste, fraud and abuse if elected governor.
“With the stroke of a pen,” Johnson said he could end the income tax and doesn’t need the legislature. He contends this would save the median families $4,747, the number being a nod to President Trump.
Johnson also said he would open the governor’s office to the Freedom of Information Act if elected. Michigan is one of only two states in the country that doesn’t require the governor’s office or the legislative branch to be subject to public records requests. James has also committed to ending the FOIA exemption.
Republican State Sen. Minority leader Aric Nesbitt and former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox dropped out of the GOP primary several week ago, but will still appear on ballots.
Over 832,000 people have already voted in the primary election, according to state data. Election day is Tuesday, Aug. 4.
WGVU's Dee Morrison contributed reporting to this story.
