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Housing. Education. The role of state government.
Six candidates competing to be the next governor of Michigan faced those questions Friday at the Northern Michigan Policy Conference in Acme.
Aric Nesbitt, Mike Duggan, Jocelyn Benson, John James, Tom Leonard, and Mike Cox all answered questions one-by-one from Kyle Melinn, a news editor for Michigan Information & Research Service Inc., or MIRS.
It was the first time that all the highest-polling candidates spoke at the same event about their candidacy, though Michigan is still 10 months out from the gubernatorial election.
DTE Energy sponsored the gubernatorial candidate sessions.
Melinn asked each candidate about housing, education and how state policy can best serve northern Michigan. Many candidates’ responses focused on the state’s economy, catering to an audience made up primarily of northern Michigan’s private sector.
Here are some of the responses that stood out from each candidate, in the order they appeared at the conference.
Aric Nesbitt (R)
State Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township) pitched himself as a “little farm boy from a little town called Lawton.”
He focused on streamlining Michigan government and speeding up regulatory hurdles.
Ideally, he said, when it comes to working with regulators, “when you call a state agency, when you call a local government, somebody answers, and they get back to you with an answer, and they help you through the process,” he said. “Here in Michigan, the biggest challenge is, one, getting somebody on the phone… and two, getting them to even call you back and reply.”
When asked about education, he stressed investment in trade education.
“Over the last 25 years, we've lost half a generation of builders, plumbers, pipefitters, folks that can't be replaced with AI (artificial intelligence) or can't be replaced with exports,” he said. “Our education system needs to lift people up to say the trades are a good option.”
Mike Duggan (I)
Mike Duggan, the former mayor of Detroit, is running as an independent, likely against established Democratic and Republican challengers.
“Lots of people in this country are tired of politics as usual,” Duggan said. “They're tired of only having two choices.”
He argued that bridging political divides could help draw companies to Michigan.
“We have a strategic plan of U-turns every two to four years. Republicans and Democrats flip control,” he joked. “If you're a national company thinking, ‘Where do I want to invest,’ why would you go to a state that, every two or four years, changes their policy?”
He said he spent some time in the past year talking to young people in Traverse City. He asked them, “‘What's your biggest concern?’ And they said, ‘affordable housing.’”
“I said, ‘You're 17. My concern [back then] was, what's the next concert?’ But when I go up to Marquette, the biggest concern is that they can't staff their hospitals because young people can't afford the housing.”
He cited his success in Detroit bringing 6,000 affordable units of housing.
When asked by IPR after his talk how he’d approach building housing in rural areas, where local townships often have control — and veto power — over housing development, he explained a plan for a $500 million “gap funding pool” for housing that would subsidize construction to make it more affordable.
The money, he said, would “help the communities that are willing. That means [towns] need to have policies that are going to encourage housing. And if one city isn't willing to do it, maybe the next city over that wants to access the state money will do it.”
Jocelyn Benson (D)
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s current Secretary of State, emphasized her experience running a large statewide agency. She said she’s a “process person.”
She also focused on retaining young talent and keeping young people in Michigan.
“As a mom of a 9-year-old little boy who, in 10 years, is going to be deciding what he does with his future, my success as a governor will be determined by whether he chooses to stay in Michigan,” she said.
She said business leaders considering investment in Michigan have told her, “‘I don't need tax breaks. I need talent. I need people that I can hire, and then I need to know those people are going to be able to afford housing and beyond the cost of living in the communities where I'm investing.’”
When asked about what state agencies need readjusting to spur economic development, she said she’d reform the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), to ensure “that instead of an inefficient agency that lacks transparency, it is an efficient, transparent economic development engine.”
She said she’d focus on investing in northern Michigan while “protecting and preserving what makes these parts of the state, the Upper Peninsula, Northern Michigan, so unique and special.”
Tom Leonard (R)
Tom Leonard, a former Michigan House Speaker, started off with an appeal for housing affordability.
“You've got young people right now that are getting married, [but] they don't know if they can afford a home. If they do, there are no more date nights, there are no vacations," he said. "But most importantly, they don't even know if they can start a family, because 60, 70 percent of their income is going to the mortgage.”
He said the state should get out of the way when it comes to building housing, by reforming the licensing process for the necessary jobs and by cutting back on regulations that govern housing development.
When asked about education in Michigan, he criticized the state’s low literacy rates and said the state should do more to identify students who need help learning to read.
“I can tell you, as a former prosecutor, if a kid has to drop out of school because they can't read, you've created a pipeline to a welfare check or a prison cell,” he said.
In response to a question about what could specifically serve northern Michigan, he made an appeal for improved healthcare — the only Republican to mention healthcare.
“Why is it that a third of our counties across this state are maternity deserts? In the next five years, we're going to be short 800 primary care physicians, and many of them are here in northern Michigan,” he said. “Why is it that we don't have a medical school north of Clare? There ought to be a medical school here in northern Michigan.”
He also stressed the lack of psychiatric care and mental health services in northern Michigan.
John James (R)
U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township) said he was glad to have driven up to hear from northern Michigan residents.
“It's super important to actually get out there and to listen and to learn before you lead. That's why I'm here,” he said. “Yeah, we have to drive in a little bit of snow, but we're Michiganders. We're used to snow, right? Put the snow tires on, put on an ice jack, and head up the road.”
He said the state should be thinking of how to retain young workers who want to live in northern Michigan to take advantage of outdoor recreation and fresh water — through policies like improved broadband infrastructure.
“It used to be that people moved to where their job was and then they found a place to live,” he said. “But we have to adapt to the 21st century. People are moving to where they want to live, first and then trying to find a job.”
When asked about reforming state agencies, James said he would consolidate Michigan Works! and the state unemployment agency, and that the MEDC needed to be “stripped down to the studs and reformed.”
Mike Cox (R)
Mike Cox, former Michigan attorney general, started off saying his plan as governor would have two parts: fix education and eliminate the state income tax.
He said he’s been a business owner for 14 years, which he said was his “more proud title now,” compared to his past role as the state’s top prosecutor.
“When you cut the income tax, not only does every senior get more money in their pocket in terms of eliminating a tax on their pension,” he said, “not only do young couples who want to save for a new home get a little extra bit in their pocket in order to buy that first home, but every small business owner … [gets] more money to their bottom line to invest [in their business].”
Cox, like many of the candidates, mentioned the “Mississippi Miracle,” referring to the state of Mississippi’s dramatic improvement in K-12 student performance, as a model for how Michigan should reform education.
The primary election is on August 4, 2026 and the general election will be held on November 3, 2026.
