Working Men Are Michigan's Real Swing Voters

Abdul El-Sayed hates football, fireworks, and Mackinac Island.

Jocelyn Benson’s campaign colors are pink and purple.

Eli Savit’s idea of prosecutorial discretion is that “sex work is work.”

Garlin Gilchrist skipped work while collecting a full salary.

Every four years, we are told, in so many words, that Republicans have to do better with women.

This trope has gone on for decades, and started in 1982 when “Women for Blanchard” helped propel Jim Blanchard from Congress to the governor’s office. It has intensified since 2002, when Michigan started electing female governors. It reached its high water mark in 2022, when limitless abortion became the law of the land.

But in 2026, it’s the male vote that should be the prize for Republicans. They would be wise to seek it out.

Pre-primary polling in the El-Sayed vs Haley Stevens Senate race found both candidates struggling with men: El-Sayed at 29%, Stevens at 32%.

Men—specifically normal men—could be brought out in large numbers. The statewide Republican ticket looks like the men who coach your son’s peewee football team. They look and sound like the men who make the state run, one sacrifice and one shift at a time.

This fall, when commercials air during college football games with El-Sayed complaining of the “toxic masculinity” behind America’s favorite sport, men will look for someone more relatable.

They will find Mike Rogers, who played football at Adrian College before going into law enforcement.

And when Jocelyn Benson meets with small groups of women, rarely emerging from her basement, John James will reach out to the Men For Liberty, who want their daughters to be safe in youth sports.

Benson presents as a woman’s woman, but would maintain Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s policy that boys can share locker rooms, fields of play, and medals that should belong to girls.

While Benson play-acts as a grandchild of the civil rights movement, James wants to keep your grandchild safe on the volleyball court. Which issue feels closer to home at this moment?

Eli Savit, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor, represents the slump that Ann Arbor is facing. His lax prosecution standards have let dangerous men roam free rather than be imprisoned. Some of them have gone on to do serious violence, abusing the freedom that should’ve lost.

The blame is Savit’s alone, as the county’s chief law enforcement officer. There’s no reason to think he would change if he become Michigan’s chief law enforcement officer.

Eli Savit’s disorder contrasts poorly to the law represented by Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd.

Lloyd has a theory on prosecution that most men would embrace: If people break the law, they should be prosecuted. Michigan hasn’t tried this for a while, but people are open to it. This used to be called “law and order.”

If Eli Savit is an overgrown boy in ill-fitting polo, Lloyd is a grown man in a suit, ready to work on day one.

When Savit traveled to campaign, he paid for gas with the county credit card. At campaign events, Lloyd packs up leftovers to tide him over on his travels home.

Garlin Gilchrist has not distinguished himself as lieutenant governor. He rarely showed up to work, where he is president of the Michigan Senate, and Democrats never viewed him as an heir apparent to Whitmer—and neither did Whitmer.

When John Engler’s lieutenant, Dick Posthumus, ran for governor in 2002, Engler endorsed him. When Granholm’s lieutenant, Dan Cherry, ran for governor in 2010, Granholm endorsed him. When Rick Snyder’s lieutenant, Brian Calley, ran for governor in 2018, Snyder endorsed him.

None of them won, but all were endorsed by the people who knew them best. Whitmer extended Gilchrist no such support. Heck, she didn’t even back Benson until after the primary.

Anthony Forlini has been a lawmaker, a township supervisor, and is the Macomb County Clerk. If Gilchrist represents an extension of Jocelyn Benson’s “open borders” view of election integrity, Forlini is a throwback to the days of Ruth Johnson, when the Secretary of State would verify before they certify.

“Assume that absentee ballot signatures are valid,” as Benson advised clerks in 2020, is not how the office has ever been run. Gilchrist would be Benson 2.0.

Under Gilchrist, expect any push for election integrity to quickly be met with a charge of “racist!” Working men don’t have little demographic cards to play, they have duties to meet. And it’s tough to imagine they see themselves in the four statewide Democrats.

Men don’t weep over Gaza, like El-Sayed. They worry when they have to put groceries on the credit card.

Michigan is a failing state right now. The damn roads are horrible, the damn schools are worse, and if a damn data center wants to come to your backyard, it will have the full backing of Gov. Whitmer.

Nothing about Michigan is working right now, yet the four statewide Democrats have no plans to do anything differently.

If Michigan can be saved in 2026, it will need to be men who do it. Not just on the ballot, but in the voting booth.