Happy Friday, there’s 32 days until the August 4th primary election and 123 days until the November 3rd general election. The mudslinging between John James, Perry Johnson, and Mike Cox reached new levels this week as Johnson’s campaign promised the next month is going to be the “toughest” of James’ political career.
Let’s dive in:
Summer Blues for James?: The Perry Johnson campaign fired off several shots at John James this week, including new ads calling him a “lying, liberal loser” and launching lyingliberalloser.com, a new site hitting James. It’s part of what the Johnson campaign describes as the “biggest” and “most intense” primary blitz in Michigan history. Johnson has spent at least $25 million so far — including $1 million alone this week. The DeVos-funded PAC Mission Michigan that’s backing James has spent nearly $4 million, while the James campaign has spent $1.5 million.
James War Room Trade Barbs With Johnson and Cox: The keyboard warriors at James War Room spent their week aggressively attacking Johnson and Cox, including saying that Johnson “struggles to even walk” and highlighting that Cox lost his hometown of Livonia during his failed 2010 campaign. On Wednesday, the James keyboard warriors said it was “payday for Perry’s puppets” and “you know who you are.”
One Year Since James’ Vote to Cut Medicaid: Today marks one year since James voted to pass Trump’s budget law that cut Medicaid, raised healthcare costs by allowing Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire, and spiked energy costs. Despite facing calls from constituents and advocates to not support the bill, James voted for Trump’s budget and has since dodged questions on the resulting cuts to healthcare. Last year, when pressed on the cuts to Medicaid in the budget, James kept the door open to ending Medicaid expansion entirely in Michigan.
GOP Debate Week: The upcoming debates on Wednesday and Thursday mark the first time that James, Johnson, and Cox have appeared on a stage together. It’s bound to be a cage match, as the candidates have increasingly traded personal attacks and battled over their support for Trump’s agenda. We’ll have our popcorn ready.
Have a great Fourth of July weekend. As always, please reach out if you have any questions.
Best,
Derrick Honeyman
Spokesperson
Michigan Democratic Party
