The Republican gubernatorial primary has remained as messy as it has been crowded, with 12 candidates and no frontrunner still battling it out ahead of the August primary. Today marks two weeks to go until the field must submit enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Don’t just take it from us – here’s what they’ve been saying about each other in relatively chronological order, bringing the 2022 cycle to new lows:
Garrett Soldano called out James Craig’s record protecting the streets of Detroit as police chief, noting that “he ran away” from the scene of a carjacking in 2013. [Newsmax TV, 01/07/22]
Kevin Rinke referred to Craig as a “lifelong bureaucrat” that may have been “a bad police chief.” [MLive, 1/21/22]
Rinke undermined Soldano’s qualifications, questioning if “a chiropractor [is] prepared to run the state.” [MLive, 1/21/22]
Tudor Dixon used her super PAC ‘Michigan Strong” to release an attack ad and accompanying website to level the attack that Rinke was ‘simply unelectable.’ [Detroit News, 1/31/22]
Mike Brown had a number of things to say about Craig after he got caught sending a fundraising letter in which he went on the attack against law enforcement, calling members of the Michigan State Police “weak-kneed…underlings” that “abandon[ed] their jobs” to operate as cronies:
- “Denigrating the men and women in law enforcement to score political points is wrong. James Craig may as well march with the defund the police crowd. That’s the type of disdain he is showing our officers.” [Captain Mike Brown For Governor, Press Release, 2/22/22]
- “James Craig is throwing the men and women of law enforcement under the bus to further his own political dreams.” [Captain Mike Brown For Governor, Press Release, 2/22/22]
- “He should know better, but then again, he’s not a real cop. Craig never did receive his certification to be a police officer in Michigan.” [Captain Mike Brown For Governor, Press Release, 2/22/22]
Dixon attacked Craig for spending more time on Fox News than the campaign trail: “He’s been on Fox for years now. And he’s still not moving up in that placement. And so the fact that there is all that room out there for one of us to overtake that.” [Tudor Dixon, Michigan’s Big Show, 2/28/22]
Perry Johnson’s campaign adviser John Yob said Craig “was caught lying probably because of memory problems and is now trying to figure out who to blame.” [MIRS, 3/2/22]
Soldano attacked Craig for continuing to run his minimal campaign “in the basement…I don’t care how many times he’s on Fox News.” Soldano also called Craig out for apparently ordering “his police department [to] chase out the poll watchers at the TCF Center.” [Garrett Soldano, Midland County Stand Up Meeting, 02/28/22]
Soldano called Johnson a candidate that was “out-of-touch” and “self-funded.” [MIRS, 3/15/22]
Soldano went after Johnson’s statistics-focused campaign messaging: “Right, the quality guru. And I’m going to tell you right now that stats are not going to win this thing.” [Garrett Soldano, Facebook Live, 03/15/22]
Soldano called out all 11 of his opponents for not generating crowd sizes on the trail that were similar to his campaign events: “Do you see any other candidate drawing crowds? They don’t. The pictures I see online are fine. They have six, to 20 people, they’re not getting crowds.” [Soldano, Lapeer Meet and Greet, 3/16/22]
Soldano took a swipe at Johnson and Rinke, “these self funders that are putting millions of dollars of their own money into race,” saying that all the grassroots heard from them were “crickets” prior to their decisions to run for office. [Soldano, Lapeer Meet and Greet, 3/16/22]
Johnson’s advisor John Yob ridiculed Craig’s internal campaign struggles: “The nice thing about appointing Co-Campaign Managers is that when the 3rd one quits, there might still be a 4th one.” [Twitter, 3/21/22]
Like Soldano, Craig also went after Johnson’s campaign theme: “You know, one of the GOP candidates stresses perfection, perfection, perfection. Let me just say this. There is no such thing as perfection. Only the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect. […] We’re never going to be perfect. [James Craig on WBCK, 3/29/22]
Yob said Tudor Dixon was “a nice woman who has a failing broke campaign” that remains “stuck…despite trying to campaign for a year.” [WXMI, 4/3/22]
Dixon’s advisor Fred Wszolek went after Rinke: “I’ve read the kinds of things Rinke says when he’s stone cold sober. I can only imagine what he says after working on a keg.” [Twitter, 4/3/22]
Yob said he didn’t understand Rinke’s reason for running: “I don’t understand the argument for Rinke. Whitmer is a Yugo? My brother died in a plane crash? The campaign doesn’t make any sense.” [Twitter, 4/4/22]
