Republican Michigan state Senate Leader Aric Nesbitt will use lessons from his humble beginnings and President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 coalition as he seeks to succeed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2026.
Nesbitt served in the Michigan House for six years before moving to the state Senate, where he took the top GOP leadership position in 2023, and later became one of the first candidates to officially enter the 2026 gubernatorial election on Tuesday.
Now, he wants to take Whitmer’s term-limited job and deny Michigan Democrats the opportunity to advance an agenda that Nesbitt believes is harming ordinary citizens.
“Michiganders expect and deserve so much more from Lansing than they are getting. For too long, they have prioritized corporations over workers, and we must put Michigan workers first,” Nesbitt told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They prioritize teachers’ unions over students, but Michigan students must come first.
Instead of putting Michigan families first, they prioritized woke ideology in our schools. As we look at it, how do we build a structure in which we can campaign on a Michigan first agenda?”
Nesbitt has deep roots in Michigan that date back six generations to the 1820s, he told the DCNF. He and his wife are raising a seventh generation in the state, which he says drives him to make it a better and more prosperous place to live for its 10 million residents.
“We are invested in the land. I grew up milking cows and doing morning chores. “I was up at 5:30 a.m.,” Nesbitt explained. “I think people in Michigan expect a governor that works just as hard as they work every day, and that’s what I’m willing to do, to show up and do that necessary work.”
“With me, you will get someone who has horned cattle, castrated pigs, and painted barns in the middle of summer. “No nonsense, ready to go to work and get the job done,” Nesbitt said. “And I believe that growing up on a farm, whether it was detasseling corn, picking grapes, or bailing hay in the middle of summer at 95 degrees, you never went inside the house until the job was completed.
And that will be my first priority: to demonstrate that as governor, I will work as hard for Michigan’s citizens as they do every day.
Nesbitt stated that he believes the Trump 2024 coalition can be replicated in 2026, resulting in an electoral victory.
“I think Michiganders are ready for new leadership, and I’m going to work across the state to recreate the dynamic coalition that President Trump had, of conservatives, of small business owners, of faith leaders, of farmers, of law enforcement officials, working families, whether it’s Muslims or Jews, that came out,” Nesbitt said in an interview with the DCNF.
“I believe President Trump provided a great template for us to be a working-class party.” I come from the working class, and my family owns a farm. “This is about putting Michigan workers and families first.”
According to NBC News, Trump made gains among black, Hispanic, and younger voters in Michigan in 2024. He also won the majority-Muslim city of Dearborn and gained ground in Hamtramck, another Muslim-majority city in the Detroit area.
Furthermore, Nesbitt strongly opposes Whitmer’s efforts to subsidize China-linked corporations to establish operations in the state. One such company is Gotion, which has connections to the Chinese Communist Party through its Chinese parent company, Gotion High-Tech.
“I have a consistent background as a legislator opposing these corporate subsidies for these woke multinational corporations, and that definitely holds for these companies that are related or affiliated to the Chinese Communist Party,” Nesbitt shared with the DCNF. “What Governor Whitmer has done is wrong, and you can see it in the recent local elections across the state.
That is national security. And, at the end of the day, I believe we can all agree that no company or individual associated with the Chinese Communist Party should be purchasing any of our Michigan land, let alone farmland.”
There is still a long way to go before voters head to the polls for the primary election, and even longer before the general election is decided. Nevertheless, Nesbitt is keeping an eye on his potential competitors.
Prior to Nesbitt’s entry, the only other major candidate in the gubernatorial race was former Democratic Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who ran as an independent rather than a Democrat.
While Nesbitt did not comment on potential GOP primary challengers, he speculated on who might enter the race for the Democratic nomination; some reports suggest that outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and current Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson are considering runs.
“I fully expect Pete Buttigieg, who’s an interloper from Indiana, and I totally expect Garlin Gilchrist, the current lieutenant governor, to jump in,” Nesbitt told the crowd. “But I think Gerrymander Jocelyn will win their primary.
She has a far-left record and receives more support in San Francisco and New York City than in Michigan. We’re going to expose her as the far-left progressive socialist she is, not what she pretends to be.”
