John James Announces Second Run For U.S Senate In Michigan
LANSING (CBS DETROIT/AP) — Republican businessman and military veteran John James of Michigan has announced that he's going to run for senate in 2020.
James will challenge first-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters in 2020 in a key state for President Donald Trump's re-election chances.
James, a 37-year-old African American combat veteran and CEO of an automotive logistics company in Detroit, lost to longtime Sen. Debbie Stabenow last year. But he did better than expected, considering he was a political unknown initially and the race was never prioritized as a battleground by the national GOP in what was a successful year for Michigan Democrats.
"There's so much work to be done to heal our nation and to unify our state. I just want to help people," James told The Associated Press in a phone interview. He called himself a "compassionate conservative, a conscientious capitalist" who "has better ideas, has more energy and has a greater ability to bring us together than what we're seeing out of Washington."
James said he chose to file on the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that helped change the course of World War II because it is a reminder of what Americans can do when they put their differences aside.
He committed to donating a nickel from every campaign dollar he raises to charitable causes. The West Point graduate and Iraq War helicopter pilot said he got the idea from what is known in the military as the "nickel ride," in which first-time pilots give a nickel from the year they were born to their flight instructors.
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