How Perry Johnson Stunted the John James Campaign

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has defeated Congressman John James in the 2026 gubernatorial race, and the result was seemingly never in doubt. The race itself drew little local coverage, never mind national headlines, and most professional pundits couldn’t even be bothered to mention it.

James had many hurdles to overcome, some out of his control and some within his grasp, but his main problem—aside from running in a battleground state under the shadow of a terribly unpopular president—was his own party.

This absurdity was laid bare as I sat in a crowded back room at Kelly’s in Lansing with assorted media members two weeks before the election. Mercurial political consultant John Yob held court and dropped frank punditry on the Michigan midterm elections.

A sharp politico known for extreme risk-taking and a riverboat gambler’s aggressiveness in past state races, Yob helmed the failed 2026 gubernatorial campaign for Perry Johnson that saw the geriatric candidate flood the state with almost $33 million in an attempt to defeat Congressman John James, yet Yob still argued that James was an underfunded candidate.

Let’s peel back the layers in that.

Perry’s candidacy was a pointless endeavor. His age, creep factor, left-hand tremors, and weird blue suits didn’t win over anybody. The guy looked like a rear admiral in the Church of Scientology, but he had money to burn, and set it aflame he did. Republican consultants working in other Michigan state races who spoke privately to the Enjoyer in July were horrified at the prospect of Johnson winning the nomination, causing further damage and dragging down other Republicans based on polling indicating Michigan residents under 50 would never vote for a Baby Boomer.

With limited Republican enthusiasm and the fire of right-wing anti-establishment fervor—and with many online influencers suspected of being on the Johnson campaign payroll—James exhausted some of his war chest fighting off a completely self-funded Johnson and entered the general election with most big Republican donors tapped out.

With only a few large Republican donors in the state, all of whom were wary of the headwinds this election cycle, there were limited funds for James. It didn’t help that most out-of-state Republican donors chose to focus their dollars on failed Mike Rogers’s failed Senate campaign.

The Republican primary itself was vicious and, entering July, became deeply personal as James fought off endless attacks on his private life. The flow of money into the dark world of social media sparked more Republican infighting.

The result was a frustrated apathy knowing that Benson—her lane cleared with no real threats after Mike Duggan’s exit—was fundraising in friendly rooms of rich donors foaming at the mouth to punish Republicans.

James, for his part, may not have done himself any favors lobbying for the Trump endorsement as hard as he did and limiting his own campaigning during the early months. But in the end, this, like every race in the country, was a referendum on Trump and the toxicity of MAGA as a political movement.

Trump and his Republican Party have given suburban Metro Detroit to the Democrats. The Martini Republicans are long gone, leaving only low-propensity white working-class voters more interested in “burning it all down” than winning elections. This is a problem of Trump’s own making, by the way, and inviting further purity spirals and infighting among more turbo-online factions.

James’s loss is even more troubling given the current state of Michigan’s economy and our decline in virtually every measurable metric. Democrats, led by Whitmer, have run the state into the ground while needing no agenda or plan other than simply stating “We’re not Trump.”

Benson, running on literally no policies, simply filed for a gubernatorial run, made a few half-assed pitches in closed-door events effectively saying “we’re going to do the same just harder and more of it,” did a couple media spots, and coasted to victory.

Michigan voters are so pissed at MAGA, so irate at Trump, so fearful of upsetting the status quo, that they voted for continued failure rather than for a Republican. Whatever the Republican Party stands for in 2026 at the state and national level, Michigan voters don’t want it.