Gretchen Whitmer was just served notice that the Michigan Republican Party might really be in the mood for a fight next year for her seat.

Maybe.

As has been rumored since earlier this May, the former top cop in the city of Detroit officially announced on Tucker Carlson’s show that he would be seeking the Republican nomination to run against Gretchen Whitmer next year for Governor. From Fox News…

Recently retired Detroit Police Chief James Craig joined “Tucker Carlson Tonight”’ Wednesday to expand on what he sees as incumbent Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s failed leadership and announce a gubernatorial exploratory committee.

Craig, a Detroit native who spent the past 8 years leading the Motor City’s law enforcement force – after tenures in Cincinnati and Portland – said that he “protected and served for 44 years” and now wants to do the same for the entire state of Michigan.

“We launched today the Chief James Craig For Governor Exploratory Committee,” the Republican said, adding he protected his city from destructive left-wing riots that sprang up in other places like Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles last year:

“We know what happened last year when other cities were burning – Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago – Detroit did not burn.”

He added that another major concern for the people of Michigan is the leadership, or lack thereof, of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Democrat’s name was often mentioned along with liberal governors of New York, California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey when criticisms were made about statewide socioeconomic lockdowns.

Just a quick side note here. Why do politicians announce they are forming committees instead of just saying: “I’M RUNNING FOR THIS SEAT”?

Now, this news of Craig seeking this seat is not a total surprise. As I wrote here at Red State previously, the news of Craig possibly running was broken on the podcast I listen to called No Bullshit News Hour with Charlie LeDuff. From my article in May…

On today’s show, Charlie and his co-hosts, Karen Dumas, Marc Fellhauer, and Detroit Red, broke some “half-baked news” as Charlie called it, with a rumor that Detroit Police Chief James Craig will run as a Republican next year against Whitmer.

Here is the announcement on today’s No Bullshit News Hour at the 2:09 mark…

Charlie: Who is going to run against Gretchen Whitmer on the Republican side because they don’t have anybody? Here is what I’m hearing. The No Bullshit News Hour has learned that quite possibly and very probably Detroit Police Chief James Craig will be resigning his seat and running on the Republican ticket for the nomination of Governor for Michigan.

He then confirmed this report with Karen who has worked in Detroit and Michigan politics and has a long list of contacts in and around the Motor City. She has heard the very same thing that LeDuff has been told.

Since this initial announcement back in May that this was gonna, maybe more than likely happen, it has been revealed that people within the Michigan GOP were actively recruiting candidates to run and Craig was top on this list. That part is not really shocking. The issue that worries me a bit is that the Michigan GOP has had a really bad record of being competent in this manner since John Engler left office in 2002. Before any of you Michiganians say “Rick Snyder,” just do a full stop and show yourself the door, being you know he was not the party pick.

Now that Craig has announced, what happens?

Some other candidates are already announced, including Garrett Soldano who was involved, from the beginning, with the Unlock Michigan petition that took away Gretchen Whitmer’s ability to use an archaic law to lock the state down. Through that effort, he has gained a massive following in the state. If the Michigan GOP decides unilaterally that Craig is the guy they will piss off a bunch of potential voters to oust Gretch in November of 2022.

This balancing act that the Michigan GOP has done a crap job with in the past is the reason I wrote this article just days ago: Is Michigan Ready to Vote out Gretchen Whitmer Next Year?

Everyone, of course, screams YES but when it gets right down to it, if the voting populace feels their person was screwed, you are asking for problems when the calls for unity come after the August GOP convention of next year.

I’m not saying this will happen, but it has happened here a lot over the past 20 years, and it has made this state a bit of a disaster politically for the GOP. The House and the Senate being held by Republicans in the state is because of the redistricting put in place by John Engler from the 1990 and 2000 census aftermath and that was all because of Big John.

James Craig looks to be an interesting candidate and I look forward to him and the other candidates for the Republican nomination meeting and discussing their visions of how they could lead the state better than Gretchen Whitmer.

Let’s hope she is just a one-term nightmare after next November.