By Matthew Hutchison / news@whmi.com

In the days since a MIRS/Mitchell Communications poll showed former Attorney General Mike Cox moving into a statistical tie with Congressman John James, Michigan’s Republican race for governor has shifted quickly, beginning with Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt dropping out and President Donald Trump endorsing James.

All three developments came around Cox's appearance on WHMI’s “Meet the People,” where Cox said the polling shows Republican voters are beginning to take a closer look at the field.

“Folks are starting to pay attention,” said Cox, a former Marine Corps veteran, Wayne County prosecutor and Michigan Attorney General from 2003 to 2011. “Three months ago, I was down 45 points to John James. He’s had a bunker mentality, a bunker campaign, and I’ve been out for 18 months talking about the things I know will make Michigan the vibrant state we once were and he’s been hiding out.”

Cox said he believes the movement is being driven by voters focusing more closely on the race after Memorial Day, along with his campaign’s growing advertising presence.
“Three months ago I was at 8% in the same Mitchell/MIRS poll. A month ago, six weeks ago I was at 19%. I’m now at 27%,” Cox said. “Over the past six weeks I started first on digital and YouTube, now on broadcast, and that’s what’s really driving it, is the fact that people are paying attention now as we are past Memorial Day, and they’re starting to make decisions, and they’re starting to focus on the candidates, the issues, and that’s what’s driving the rise.

“It’s nothing wrong with the poll. It’s everything that’s right about our campaign and not so right about the others.”
The same MIRS/Mitchell polling operation has drawn criticism from Mallory McMorrow’s campaign in the Democratic race for U.S. Senate. Asked how confident he was in the numbers, Cox said McMorrow was dismissing the poll because it showed movement she did not like.

“You know, McMorrow is tanking,” Cox said. “Abdul El-Sayed is apparently surging, much like myself. So, obviously, she doesn’t like that.”

Cox said his own campaign polling shows the same upward momentum, and argued that James’ campaign reaction shows the former attorney general is now being treated as a real threat.

“Our polling reflects the same trajectory,” Cox said. “Campaigns that don’t like a poll always want to bitch and whine and moan about it. But here’s the reality, I’ve been moving up steadily. It’s no surprise, and in fact, two days after the poll came out, John James started attacking me. So that tells you everything right there. You don’t attack someone who isn’t a threat to you.”

Cox also criticized James for skipping Republican debates and forums, saying voters are beginning to notice.

“Maybe in Congress you can take days off work, not show up, but people expect their governor to be out there seven days a week,” Cox said. “Whatever people think about Gretchen Whitmer, she’s out there most times working, right, and people expect the governor is going to be a leader and not take days off.”

Cox had been actively seeking Trump’s endorsement at the time of the interview. Since the taping, Trump has endorsed James, giving the congressman a major boost in the Republican primary and changing the context for Cox, who has campaigned under the phrase “Make Michigan Great Again.”
Before the endorsement, Cox said he was confident he could win Trump’s support.

“Yes, he was the last Republican who’s won statewide office here, so absolutely I am,” Cox said when asked if he was seeking the endorsement. “And if he decides to endorse, I’m confident I’ll get it.”

Cox argued his case was based partly on his role as an attorney for Trump’s 2024 election day security operation and partly on his own history of winning statewide in Michigan.

“I’ve never bad-mouthed the president, unlike John James, who, when the president was indicted and thought he was down and out, said he wasn’t fit to lead and couldn’t be trusted,” Cox said. “Like the president, I’ve won Michigan multiple times, and I know the vice president, and he wants to keep Michigan in the Republican column, and I’m the ticket to have that done.”

Cox is running on a platform centered on eliminating Michigan’s income tax, reducing property taxes, restoring Right to Work, ending what he calls corporate welfare and changing Michigan’s approach to education and economic growth.

On taxes, Cox said Michigan should look to states without an income tax and argued that eliminating it would make Michigan more competitive while putting more money in residents’ pockets.

“It will mean more money in everyone’s pocket,” Cox said. “If you have a young couple, let’s say they’re 28, they’re 30, 31, and they’re living here in Livingston County, and whether married, unmarried, if they can pool the savings for not having paid the state income tax for a couple years, that’s the first nest egg that they can plant seeds right here in Livingston County. And we know that once people buy homes here in Michigan, they’re likely to stay here, and grow and prosper here.”

Cox also said eliminating the income tax would help small businesses reinvest and grow.

“It unleashes the power of the 900,000 small business men and women,” Cox said. “Most businesses in Michigan are small businesses and their state corporate tax is the income tax. So when you eliminate that, that means your local pizza or bar can get a new pizza oven. That means the tool and die shop can either maybe re-educate its folks on the news software or maybe get a new tool and die machine.”

Cox also called for property tax changes, including moving millage increase votes to November ballots when more voters are paying attention. He said that would not prevent local governments from making their case for legitimate needs but would stop what he described as “sneak attacks” on property tax bills.

On education, Cox pointed to Mississippi’s gains in fourth-grade reading scores and said Michigan should adopt a similar approach focused on phonics, third-grade reading, tutoring for struggling students, coaching for struggling teachers and school grading.

“They are ninth in the country, while we are 48th, but we’re spending 40% more per kid,” Cox said. “We are top five in spending and bottom five in outcomes.”

Cox said Michigan needs to restore transparency and accountability in schools, arguing that the state moved in the wrong direction when it eliminated third-grade reading requirements and school grading.

“In Mississippi, the miracle there is they provide transparency and accountability,” Cox said. “We abandon transparency, we abandon accountability, and you see the results now.”

Public safety is also part of Cox’s campaign pitch. The former Wayne County homicide prosecutor and two-term attorney general said Michigan should cooperate with federal law enforcement, including ICE, and focus state resources on violent crime, parole and probation enforcement and communities with high crime rates.

Cox also argued that his prior statewide wins make him the strongest Republican candidate for the general election. He defeated Democrat Gary Peters in the 2002 attorney general race and won re-election in 2006 while Democrat Jennifer Granholm was governor.

Asked how he would reassure Republican voters that he is the best candidate to beat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Cox pointed to that record.

“Number one, I’ve done it before. Number two, I beat perhaps the greatest Democrat politician of his generation here in Michigan, Gary Peters, not only he’s about 14 and one against Republicans, I’m the only one who beat him. But what I do is like trust in our ideas, right? You know, Secretary Benson is politically astute, she’s going to have a lot, she have a lot of money, and she has name ID, but the reality is she has the wrong ideas for education. She’s not about accountability, and she has the wrong ideas on fixing our economy, and ultimately that’s going to make a difference of voters in November.”