Article courtesy of MIRS for SBAM’s Lansing Watchdog newsletter
House Republican gubernatorial front-runner John James (R-Shelby Township) was at Wednesday night’s State of the State (SotS) address. Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Jocelyn Benson was there, too.
Republican candidate Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) gave his party’s pre-recorded response to the speech. Fellow candidate Mike Cox made himself available for comments, and that was the sum of how gubernatorial candidates reacted to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s final speech from the House floor.
Independent candidate Mike Duggan was not there, nor did he offer any comments online, unlike other Republican candidates.
As Secretary of State, Benson was expected to be present and held court with reporters after the speech was done.
She said Whitmer’s focus on affordability mirrors what she’s hearing on the campaign trail and further emphasized that it needs to be a priority.
She was also encouraged by the governor’s emphasis on literacy and education as it was “personally” important to her as a parent and daughter of educators. Prioritizing science-based curriculum and literacy improvements, she said, is “moving in the right direction,” but argued the state must continue investing in educators and addressing shortages if it wants to reach her goal of making Michigan a top-10 public education state.
“We’ve got a lot more work to do if we’re going to ensure our educators are well paid, that we’re addressing the educator shortage in the state, providing wraparound services for educators and paraprofessionals and others who need to have support,” Benson said.
On health care, she said affordability and accessibility must remain central, saying she was the first gubernatorial candidate to release a plan focused on lowering costs statewide.
“One of my potential opponents voted to raise health care premiums, not once, not twice, but three times,” she said, adding that her plan “draws a sharp contrast of what we have in terms of visions for the future of our state.”
Asked whether she has discussed securing Whitmer’s endorsement, Benson said the two speak regularly, describing the governor as “a great friend.” Since Whitmer is the vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Benson said, “I think there will be no question about who she’ll be helping and where she’ll be as we get closer to November.”
James was in attendance Wednesday as the guest of Rep. Alicia St. Germaine (R-Harrison Township), a constituent of his in the 10th Congressional district. He explained that Wednesday was the second SotS address he’s attended, the first being one where he was acknowledged by Gov. Rick Snyder more than 12 years ago as a young Army captain returning to Michigan to build up his family’s supply-chain management business.
“But I wonder nowadays, after seven years of Gretchen Whitmer’s leadership, she acknowledged that young people aren’t choosing to make that same decision. That’s wrong, but we have the power to change it again,” said James, adding that cutting taxes and letting people “keep more money in their pockets” is akin to giving them a raise.
James also said Michigan has the supply base, the talent and the natural resources, but lacks the leadership right now to bring “us all together and get us to accomplish tough and hard things.”
“Despite the rosy pictures that we painted for Michiganders today, the fact remains that we’re still 45th out of 50 in education. The fact remains that we’re still number two in unemployment, and the fact remains that in the city of Detroit, one in two children are still living in poverty,” James said. “They can’t be whitewashed or painted over by what politicians say on the bully pulpit.”
Responding to Whitmer’s push for Congress to reinstate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits that subsidized insurers to sell on the ACA marketplace, James said he would ask the governor to do a better job cutting fraud.
“When you look at the fact that Gretchen Whitmer has a budget that’s $20 billion richer than it was six years ago, where’s that money going? We found billions of dollars in unemployment
fraud. We found hundreds of millions of dollars in SNAP and health care fraud,” James said. “We don’t have a tax problem in the state of Michigan, we have a spending problem in the state of Michigan, and too much of it is being wasted.”
Cox, the former attorney general, acknowledged that Whitmer is a gifted orator, but the substance of her speech was largely empty. He noted that Whitmer spent a long time on literacy, but didn’t acknowledge her own decisions that he thinks helped drive Michigan to some of the nation’s lowest reading scores.
The governor has spent and wasted $1 billion extra on reading while Michigan has fallen from 35th to 48th in fourth-grade reading.
“Across the board, Michigan is falling behind, and working families are paying the price,” Cox said.
He added that Michigan has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates and lost 19,000 jobs at the start of 2026. Nesbitt’s speech was given on his family’s sixth-generation dairy and grape farm in Lawton and highlighted by this opening line:
“Too much of what we heard tonight doesn’t pass the smell test, not even here on the farm,” he said. “For eight years, Gov. Whitmer has had a bad habit of saying all the right things and doing all the wrong things, and hoping you’ll forget. But we haven’t forgotten because we’re living with the consequences.”
Prior to the speech, Republican Perry Johnson posted on X, “Tonight in the State of the State, we will be reminded why we need to elect a Republican this fall. Whitmer failed. We cannot afford four more years of tax and spend Democrat policies that chase people and businesses out of Michigan.”
Republican candidate Tom Leonard didn’t issue a post-speech statement. Instead, he posted on X Wednesday morning, “News flash to Republicans: Here is some straight talk. Whitmer’s approval is still above 50%. She’s not on the ballot. We don’t win by attacking her. We win by attacking problems by offering bold solutions and a positive vision. Every. Day.”
Click here for more News & Resources.