HUDSON

MARQUETTE — The next gubernatorial candidate in the 2026 race we’ve interviewed is Anthony Hudson, a Michigander with southern roots and a blue-collar background.

A truck driver born and raised in Texas, Hudson moved to the state 13 years ago, and spends his free time riding his Harley Davidson, coaching baseball and taking care of his kids. Hudson ran to represent Michigan’s 8th Congressional District back in 2024, and despite losing in the primary, says that he received over 300,000 emails from people in the district who encouraged him to keep fighting and putting pressure on Lansing. One of those emails in particular stood out to him, telling him he could be a great governor for the state, and it inspired him to think about running in the 2026 gubernatorial race.

“We’re just tired of being overtaxed. We’re tired of our property taxes going up. We’re tired of misrepresentation. We’re tired of seeing solar panels take over our farmland and wind turbines popping up everywhere, ruining the geography of our beautiful state,” he said. “You can go back 20 years or more and we haven’t had a governor that truly represented the people. I think the people are ready for something new, something different, so I said we’ll give it a shot.”

Hudson explained how his campaign strategy was a bit different compared to others, citing how he “has fun” on the campaign trail. The day before our interview, he had driven through St. Ignace and ate his first pasty, while also taking the chance to make one by hand. Recalling his experiences with town halls, state fairs and rodeos, and participation in parades, Hudson also says that he and his team rely on social media as a tool as well.

“We rely a lot on social media. It’s free, it doesn’t cost anything, and just in the last 90 days on Facebook alone, we’ve had almost 20 million hits in 90 days. So, I feel like our reach is getting out there and people are listening,” said Hudson.

“We’ve called out a lot of treason. We’ve called out a lot of the establishment and their wrongdoings. We’ve called out the Democrats and their wrongdoings. We want people to know the truth and we want people to bring transparency to the table. I think people like it. My opponents – Aric Nesbitt and Tom Leonard – I think they’ve both been up here recently, and they won’t do the things that I do,” Hudson said. “I did a video in a cemetery a couple (of) weeks ago, and I said ‘I’m here at the Northern Michigan Voter Headquarters, where people are literally dying to get in here.’ I went on to say something like, ‘When I was a kid, I was taught that when you died, you were laid to rest, but not in Michigan politics. When you die, you come back and vote Democrat. And that’s a problem with our voting rules, with our election integrity, with our voting system.’ And it went semi-viral. You wouldn’t see any of my opponents talking about that in the way that we talked about it. I think that people like the fact that we’re raw, that we aren’t afraid to say what we need to say. I think that differs from what the other guys do, the typical suit-and-tie and political smile and tell(ing) you what you want to hear. We tell you what you didn’t know and leave it up to you to decide how you want to handle that.”

Hudson elaborated on how when people are elected to serve in Lansing, it sometimes comes across that the people are serving them rather than the other way around. He used the analogy of sheep and shepherds, explaining that the people are meant to be the shepherds when it comes to electing officials who represent them.

“I think, with everything that we stand for – getting rid of property taxes, getting rid of the state income tax, getting rid of no-fault car insurance, getting rid of the annual auto registration on our vehicles, protecting the Second Amendment rights, getting rid of the Red Flag laws, protecting women’s rights, protecting farmland, getting rid of wind and solar – the list goes on and on and on. That’s how you serve the people,” he said in response to how he would serve the people if he were to be elected governor. “You address the people’s concerns, and you don’t override them…to represent the people is to bring back local control and let the counties decide based on the majority vote of the people, not the representatives in Lansing…we understand that Marquette is a little more left-leaning, and that’s okay. What’s important is that the people on the left understand, the same as the people on the right, that our objective helps both sides. We’re not here to split the water or create the tension. Democrats pay property taxes too, it’s not just a Republican thing. Democrats pay for no-fault car insurance, right? It’s not just a Republican thing. We are putting together an agenda that literally helps the entire state. It’s not left or right. It’s not red or blue. It’s not split, it’s all or nothing.”

If Hudson wanted people to take away any key messages from him and his campaign, it would be that his agenda is meant to serve the entire state, such as cutting government by 30%. He explained that the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Department of the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Natural Resources Commission are “waste(s) of taxpayer dollars,” saying there are other ways to do things and “what’s written today was unwritten yesterday.” He says he’s all for progress, but that we also have to protect the history and traditions of Michigan.

“Our agenda is to fix Michigan, like the hat says. We take pride in our ability to fix the education system, to actually fix our roads (and) our infrastructure, and I’ve been a working man my whole life. I’ve rolled my sleeves up, I’m a truck driver. For 21 years, I’ve been guiding this country forward. Truck drivers don’t drive backwards,” Hudson concluded. “We want the opportunity to drive forward from Lansing, and to do that, we need the support of the people, whether they’re Democrat or Republican, it’s support…our goal, our objective and we want people to know about us is that we will roll our sleeves up and get to work. I don’t know anything else. I’ve worked my entire life. I’ve never been in politics and that’s fine because for me, political experience equals failure. Every time…we want to recognize the people, their needs and what it is they want, and I think we’ve put together a policy and platform that not only identifies the people but responds to the people.”

Anthony’s team also streamed our interview live on his Facebook page back in August. A recording of the full interview can be seen online at facebook.com/share/v/1FLf9s3CL4.

More information on Anthony’s gubernatorial campaign can be found on his website at electanthonyhudson.com.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.