The Detroit News · September 4, 2026
Maybe you've seen them -- I haven't. Signs for the Michigan governor's race, that is.
I've seen plenty of campaign signs around Michigan this summer. But they're for the Senate race, congressional races and local contests.
It feels strange how few there are for either Republican nominee John James or Democratic nominee Jocelyn Benson. But perhaps that says something about the race itself.
The governor's race hasn't given voters much to care about yet -- and that's especially striking because the issues voters say matter most are sitting right there.
That's affordability, the economy and the cost of groceries, housing, energy and everything else that makes up the increasingly expensive business of being a Michigan family.
There is an appetite for change in Michigan. But so far, much of that energy seems to be gathering around the state's contentious U.S. Senate race rather than the race for governor.
That creates an opening for both candidates, but particularly for James.
Benson has the polling advantage, although that is hardly a determinant in November. She also has a significant financial advantage.
Benson had raised about $10.7 million through July 19 and had about $6.4 million left in the bank. James had raised roughly $7.6 million and had about $1.4 million on hand.
Benson's campaign has also reserved $10 million in television, cable and streaming advertising for the fall.
The money and the machinery is there. What has been harder to find is a sense that voters are paying attention.
Labor Day is traditionally when campaigns begin to feel like campaigns, although this one has been underway for well over a year. Now both candidates have to make the case for why this election matters.
For Benson, that means asking for another four years of Democratic leadership after eight years of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
For James, it means rallying voters to change.
If James can't outline what needs to change in Michigan, why it needs to change and how those changes would make people's lives more affordable, it will be difficult to motivate voters who aren't already inclined to vote Republican.
And if Benson wants to benefit from the familiarity and relative popularity of Whitmer's tenure, she has to explain what she would add to the office.
That's the part of this race that seems to be missing.
After all, this is the election to replace Whitmer, who has occupied the governor's office fortwo terms and been the focal point of some of the state's most consequential and contentious policies.
Benson, as part of the leadership team, should have to answer for them and James should be explicit about how he would have done things differently.
Michigan's political attention is being pulled toward Washington, national politics and the increasingly familiar arguments over ideology, which is understandable.
But it doesn't make the governor's race any less important.
A Wisconsin Republican campaign aide recently put the tension rather bluntly while discussing his party's effort to tie a Democratic opponent to socialism and communism.
"You have to find a balance because at the end of the day, will people care about socialism and communism and all of that if they can't go to the grocery store and feel like they can load their grocery cart?"
It's a question Michigan's governor candidates should be asking, too.
There is a big opportunity here to talk to voters about things they understand deeply because they live with them every day.
The candidate who figures out how to make this race feel less like another chapter in the national culture war and more like a choice about the future of Michigan may be the one who finally gets voters to pay attention.