Overview
- Mike Cox announced Friday that he is ending his roughly 20-month campaign for governor and will back John James and other Republican nominees.
- Cox said President Donald Trump’s June 22 endorsement of John James shifted Michigan primary polling and left James out of reach in internal surveys.
- Cox pledged to work for James, Anthony Forlini and Doug Lloyd in November and thanked volunteers, donors and his wife Laura Cox for their support.
- His withdrawal leaves John James and Perry Johnson as the principal GOP contenders and increases James’s momentum heading into the August primary.
- Cox is a two-term former Michigan attorney general, ex-prosecutor and Marine, and his exit underscores how high-profile endorsements and short-term polls can quickly reshape primary races.