MARQUETTE — Michigan State Police veteran Capt. Mike Brown announced Tuesday that he is withdrawing from the race for the Republican nomination for governor after he was identified as one of five GOP candidates that the Michigan Board of Elections found did not have enough valid signatures to qualify.

Brown, along with James Craig, Perry Johnson, Donna Brandenburg and Michael Markey Jr. were found to be well under the 15,000 signature threshold, officials said.

“It appears that after my campaign’s signature gathering was complete, individuals independently contracted for a portion of our signature gathering and validation jumped onto other campaigns and went on a money grab,” Brown said in a statement. “They were involved in allegedly fraudulent signature gathering activities with these campaigns, causing the Michigan Bureau of Elections to declare all of the signatures connected to those individuals as invalid.”

Brown had received endorsements from Ted Nugent and several law enforcement officials throughout the state.

“I cannot and will not be associated with this activity,” Brown said. “I have made many tough decisions for the right reasons over my life. This is a painful, but necessary decision I make decisively because that’s what citizens deserve.”