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MARQUETTE -- On Wednesday, Michigan Gubernatorial candidate and Congressman John James (R) visited Marquette as part of a larger campaign trip around the Upper Peninsula. James will face Secretary of State Joslyn Benson in the November election.
"The natural resources up here are second to none," said James. "Knowing the resilience and the culture up here is going to be important, because you can't run the U.P. from Lansing."
James said that in practice this would look like "listening more" to people from the U.P. while in office.
"Economic development is stifled by the regulatory environment, and we need to address that," said James. "Really just listening to folks up here for what they need and then providing that, getting out of the way, is something that is very, very important."
James is currently a U.S. Representative, serving Michigan's 10th Congressional District in parts of Macomb and Oakland Counties. James previously ran two unsuccessful bids for Senate in 2018 and 2020.
"We all want clean air and clean water, no more than the people who've been living up here," said James. "But we also need to make life economical and common sense."
In the primary election, James was criticized by his opponents for his campaign funding, especially campaign donations from DTE Energy and companies connected to data centers.
"I plan on being a facilitator, not a dictator," said James. "If somebody does want a data center, then I support that. If they don't, I support that. But ultimately, the locals should lead the way, and Lansing should support."
James said that the pillars of his data center policy are local control, making sure electricity bills won't go up, protecting water and preventing pollution. He also said that data centers should be built on brownfield properties, rather than on farmland.
"You have downstate, a German company that went directly to Lansing and they're just buying up farms," said James. "There's a threat to eminent domain, or condemning productive farmland, just because somebody from out of the country wants to come and buy up our land.
"You can't buy up our land. You can't buy up our water. Michigan is open for business, but we are not for sale."
When asked if this stance also applied to foreign companies such as Highland Copper and Enbridge in the Upper Peninsula, James said,
"There's a difference between use and abuse. There's a difference between investing in a community and disinvesting in a community. That'll have to be a case-by-case basis.
"If you're coming in and you're benefiting the community, you're broadening the tax base so we can lower our tax rate. You're training folks ... (in) skilled trades training and things of that nature.
"If you're investing in pouring back into the community, then we're listening. But if you're here to take, if you're here to abuse, then absolutely under no circumstances will my people be defenseless while I'm governor of the state of Michigan."
James has historically expressed support for the Line 5 tunnel project.
James recently announced his running mate as Jay DeBoyer, a Michigan State Representative from the 63rd district in Macomb and St. Clair Counties.
"Jay DeBoyer is a family man," said James. "He's a business man, and he's somebody who's already served the people of the state of Michigan ... he understands what it means to get legislation through a Republican House, a Democrat Senate, signed by a Democrat governor. These are the types of muscles that you need to have a little bit of experience using, if we're going to be leading a state focused on the people and not partisanship."
Other stops on James' tour of the Upper Peninsula include his family's camp in Blaney Park, a mine in Iron Mountain and the U.P. State Fair.
"I'm excited," said James. "People don't realize what we have up here in terms of the forestry and the mining ... we can get that fired back up, the economic benefit that we would have.
"And then also looking at some gaps. There's massive gaps in housing, massive gaps with energy and health care ... when you get up there and talk to folks about what their concerns are, and then really leveraging some of the great opportunities we have here, it's really cool."
More information on James' policy positions is available at johnjamesmi.com.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.