Republican Michigan state Senate Leader Aric Nesbitt will draw from lessons learned 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 for six years in the Michigan House before moving up to the state Senate and taking the top GOP leadership post there in 2023 and later becoming one of the first candidates to officially enter the 2026 gubernatorial race on Tuesday. Now, he’s looking to take the term-limited Whitmer’s job and deny Michigan Democrats an opportunity to further advance an agenda Nesbitt believes to be working against ordinary citizens.
Michigan families deserve to have a Governor that puts our families, students, and workers first. Thanks for having me on @rooprajfox2 pic.twitter.com/0mc2JXk0d0
— Aric Nesbitt (@aricnesbitt) January 17, 2025
“Michiganders expect and deserve so much better out of Lansing than what they’re getting. For too long, they put corporations over workers, and we need to have Michigan workers first,” Nesbitt told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They put teachers unions over students, and we need to have Michigan students first. They put woke ideology in our schools first over our families, instead of Michigan families first. As we look at it, how do we create a structure that we campaign on a Michigan first agenda?”
Nesbitt has deep roots in Michigan, spanning back six generations to the 1820s, he told the DCNF. He and his wife are establishing a seventh generation in the state, something he says motivates him to make the state a better and more prosperous place to live for its 10 million inhabitants.
“We’re invested in the land. I grew up, you know, milking cows, doing morning chores. I was up at 5:30 in the morning,” Nesbitt said. “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’re going to get somebody who has horned cattle, castrated pigs, painted barns in the middle of summer. No nonsense, ready to get to work and get the job done,” Nesbitt continued. “And I think that’s something where growing up on a farm, whether it was detasseling corn, picking grapes, or, you know, bailing hay in the middle of summer at 95 degrees, you never went inside the house until you got the job done. And that’s going to be job one, showing that I’m going to work just as hard for the citizens of Michigan as governor as they show up and work every day.”
Nesbitt explained that he believes the Trump 2024 coalition can be replicated in 2026 and deliver 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 told the DCNF. “I think President Trump provided a great template that we’re a working class party. I have a working class background, we have a working farm. This is about putting Michigan workers first, putting Michigan families first.”
Trump managed to make inroads with black voters, Hispanic voters and younger voters in Michigan in 2024, according to NBC News. He also won the majority-Muslim city of Dearborn and made gains in Hamtramck, another Muslim-heavy city in the Detroit area.
Moreover, Nesbitt strongly opposes Whitmer’s moves to subsidize China-tied corporations to set up shop in the state. One such company is Gotion, which has Chinese Communist Party connections via 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 told the DCNF. “It’s wrong, what Governor Whitmer has done, and you see that with local elections that have gone on around the state. That’s national security. And at the end of the day, I think we can all agree that any company or individual associated with the Chinese Communist Party should not be buying up any of our land in Michigan, let alone our farmland.”
There is still a long way to go before voters go to the polls in the primary election, and longer still before the general election is decided. Nevertheless, Nesbitt is keeping an eye on his potential competition.
Prior to Nesbitt throwing his hat in the ring, former Democratic Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan stood as the only other major candidate to get into the gubernatorial race to date, albeit as an independent rather than as a Democrat. While Nesbitt did not comment on possible challengers in the GOP primary process, he has some guesses as to who may enter the race in search of the Democratic nomination; some reports indicate that outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and current Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson could be weighing 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 said. “But I think Gerrymander Jocelyn is the one that’s going to end up winning their primary. She has a far-left record, and she has more support in San Francisco, New York City, than in Michigan. We’re going to expose her for that far-left progressive socialist that she is, instead of what she tries to make herself out to be.”
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