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“In this episode”

• Business Man Perry Johnson speaks about his internal polling.
• The importance of filing signatures early.

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With one month until filing deadlines to get on the November ballot, it’s time to take a look to see who has the best chance of representing their party as their next gubernatorial candidate. This week on WDET’s MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow and Alethia Kasben point out the candidates to watch out for as we walk further down the campaign trail.  

Handing in signatures on time is very important. Candidates for governors need to have 100 signatures from seven of the state’s 13 US House districts. Also, filing signatures earlier than your opponents do ensure that any duplicate signatures won’t be erased from your filings.  

Later on in the episode businessman Perry Johnson stopped by to talk about his bid for governor. Johnson’s candor in talking about his poll numbers from his own polling surprised the MichMash hosts. Internal polling from the Perry Johnson Campoaign showed that Johnson was at 20% in the district of Republican US Representative and gubernatorial candidate, John James. Johnson does not believe it makes sense for him to be that close  

“I did not conduct this poll, statistically I don’t see how it’s possible that I would be that close in his [John James] district. The poll numbers are so high even the candidate that I’m looking at find it hard to believe. 

Johnson had said that if he makes it to 20% he believes he would receive support from President Trump.  

• More from WDET:

  Michigan GOP governor candidates short signatures

  A Republican outlook on Michigan’s 2026 elections

  MichMash: How Trump auto tariffs impact Michigan; John James joins gubernatorial race + more