John James

As U.S. Rep. John James leads in most GOP gubernatorial primary polls and boasts President Donald Trump's endorsement, his opponents have focused their ire on him both on the airwaves and the debate stage as the intraparty contest for the Republican nomination for Michigan governor enters a fiery final stretch.

James – a Shelby Township Republican – has worked tirelessly to fend off criticism from former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and businessman Perry Johnson. "Look, these two gentlemen would troll Jesus and say he couldn't swim because he walked on water," James said during the debate on Wednesday, July 8 on Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK-TV) – the first televised debate in the race that followed a barrage of attacks targeting James.

With James occupying a front-runner status in the polls, it's no wonder his opponents are focused on him, said GOP political consultant Jason Cabel Roe. "They have to attack him," said Roe, who added that "the only way they get any oxygen is to take James down."

In ads, Johnson has dubbed James a "Lying Liberal Loser." In one, he casts James as a proponent of illegal immigration, but it cites comments James made in the past in support of guest worker visas for farm labor in Michigan that provide a legal avenue for foreign workers to come to the state.

In another ad, Johnson claims James is "The DEI Candidate!" James, if elected in November, would make history as Michigan's first Black governor.

Johnson pushed back against the idea that the ad is a racist dog whistle. Johnson told reporters following the Thursday, July 9, GOP debate on WOOD-TV that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion awards were previously bestowed to James Group International – James' family company where the congressman previously worked. "They're woke awards," Johnson said. He didn't name any specific recognitions but the company in 2023 was chosen for a National Black Supplier Development Program created to support Black-owned businesses following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 that sparked racial justice protests, according to the Detroit Regional Chamber.

When it comes to race relations, Johnson told reporters that he thinks of himself as "colorblind."

James criticized Johnson's ad. "Well, I think that they are pandering to a group of people who frankly are folks who don't understand what Michigan's about," James told reporters after the debate, according to a video published by the Detroit News.

From the stage earlier in the night, James also pushed back against Johnson's claim that James is beholden to corporate donors with interests in building out data centers to fuel artificial intelligence. "Perry, I know when you were born, Black people could still be bought and sold in this country, but no one owns me," James said during the WOOD-TV debate.

Johnson later called on James to apologize for "using the race card" in a news conference the day after the exchange. "It's a shameful attempt to really distract from the favor-based relationship he has with special interest groups," he said. Johnson also reiterated his criticism of comments James made in 2020 to The New York Times labeling as "hurtful and cruel" the phrase "all lives matter" in response to Black Lives Matter protests against instances of police brutality that have killed Black people.

As Johnson took issue with James' comments on race, former Attorney General Mike Cox attacked James during the Fox 2 debate as a "nepo baby" for occupying a leadership position at the company his father founded. The next night on WOOD-TV, Cox suggested that because James is the "son of a CEO," he lacks empathy for Michigan families hurt by a loss of manufacturing jobs.

James said his family's journey from slavery to creating a business shouldn't be scorned. "Mike Cox, I'm the son of a CEO who was a truck driver. His father was a mason. His father was a sharecropper, and his father was a slave. How dare you shame the steps it takes to come up from Mississippi and build a life of prosperity for a family like mine," James said.

The exchange followed the release of a new ad from Cox claiming the James' family company has profited from outsourcing by handling Chinese imports, which James has denied. (A past Detroit Free Press review found that the company appears to handle some goods imported from China.)

At a news conference unveiling the ad the day before the Fox 2 debate, Cox repeatedly called James a hypocrite. "Today is about John James putting profits over the people and the jobs that he's supposed to protect in Congress as an elected official from the state of Michigan," he said.

Both Cox and Johnson have also gone after James for state support his family's company received to create new jobs that never materialized during the tax agreement with the state's economic development body, which was later revoked, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. James responded during the Fox 2 debate and said that the agreement was brokered when he was still in the military, but it also overlapped with James' time as a company leader.

In a statement, James' campaign manager Jackson Gross described his candidate as the "clear choice" for governor. "At this point, they're just burning through millions by mindlessly regurgitating Democrat talking points in an attempt to tear it all down before they leave politics for good," Gross said.

The attacks lobbed at James come as the congressman has continued to notch endorsements after the president weighed in on the race. Republican leaders have called on their fellow partisans to unite behind James, but with less than a month until the Tuesday, Aug. 4 primary, his opponents have only turned up the heat on Trump's pick.