John James | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2022 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's10th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Lisa McClain (redistricted) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Edward James (1981-06-08)June 8, 1981 (age 44) Southfield, Michigan, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Elizabeth James |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
| Military service | |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Service years | 2004–2012 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Aviation Branch |
| Conflict | Iraq War |
| Awards | Ranger Tab |
John Edward James (born June 8, 1981[1]) is an American politician, businessman, and former military officer serving as theU.S. representative forMichigan's 10th congressional district since 2023.[2][3] A member of theRepublican Party, he was the party’s nominee forU.S. Senate in2018 and2020.[4]
In2022, James declared his candidacy in Michigan's redrawn 10th congressional district, a seat he won and was re-elected to in2024.
On April 7, 2025, James announced his candidacy forgovernor of Michigan in the2026 election.[5]
James was born inSouthfield, Michigan, in 1981 and grew up Baptist[6] in thePalmer Woods neighborhood ofDetroit. He graduated from the CatholicBrother Rice High School in 1999.[7] He graduated from theUnited States Military Academy (West Point) in 2004,[7][8] and served eight years in theArmy, participating in multiple tours of duty inOperation Iraqi Freedom as anAH-64 Apache pilot.[9][10] Two of his West Point classmates are fellow congressmenWesley Hunt andPat Ryan.[11] He attendedRanger School and became Ranger-tabbed as a captain.[12][13]
James received a master's degree insupply chain management fromPenn State University'sSmeal College of Business[9] and anMBA from theUniversity of Michigan'sRoss School of Business.[14]
In 2012, James joined James Group International, where his father, John A. James, was the CEO.[15] James Group is a globalsupply chain management service company; James became its director of operations, and eventually became president of James Group International and CEO of its subsidiary, Renaissance Global Logistics.[16][8] Renaissance Global, based in Detroit, was the recipient of a $1–2 millionPaycheck Protection Program loan during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[17]
James was named one ofDetroit Business Journal's 30 in their 30s of 2012, andMichigan Chronicle's 40 under 40 of 2014.[18] He served as a board member of the Michigan Council for Future Mobility, Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council and National Veteran Business Development Council. He serves on the Detroit Workforce Development Board.[19]
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In September 2017, James entered theRepublican primary for the2018 United States Senate election in Michigan[20] in an attempt to unseat three-term incumbentDemocratDebbie Stabenow, as well as become Michigan's first African-American senator. Despite musician and Michigan nativeKid Rock publicly toying with the idea of running for the seat for months, the primary came down to James andGrosse Pointe businessman and former Wayne County commissioner Sandy Pensler.[21] James was endorsed viaTwitter byPresidentDonald Trump on July 27, 2018, eleven days before the primary.[22] James won the nomination with 55% of the vote.[23]
On November 6, 2018, Stabenow defeated James, 52.3% to 45.8%.[24]
In late November 2018,Bloomberg News reported that Trump was considering nominating James to become theUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations, to replace AmbassadorNikki Haley, who previously announced that she was planning to leave the Trump administration by the end of 2018. James reportedly met at theWhite House with Trump,Vice PresidentMike Pence, andSecretary of StateMike Pompeo.[25] He was ultimately bypassed for the position. Trump announced he would appointHeather Nauert, thespokesperson for the United States Department of State and a former television reporter, to succeed Haley,[26] but Nauert was never nominated and announced in February 2019 that she was withdrawing from consideration.[27]
After Nauert's withdrawal, Trump again considered James for the ambassadorship,[28] but eventually nominatedUnited States ambassador to CanadaKelly Knight Craft for the post.[29]
Because the election margin in the 2018 Senate race was smaller than expected, James became a front-runner for the Republican nomination to take on Michigan's other incumbent Democratic senator,Gary Peters, in the2020 election.[30][31]
As well as being recruited to take on Peters, it was reported in June 2019 that theNational Republican Congressional Committee was recruiting James to challenge freshman Democratic U.S. representativeHaley Stevens ofMichigan's 11th congressional district.[32]
On June 6, 2019, James announced that he was seeking the Republican nomination in2020 to take on Peters.[33] Michigan was one of two states in which an incumbent Democratic senator was seeking reelection during 2020 in a state won by Trump in2016, the other beingAlabama.[34] Although the Associated Press called the race for Peters on November 4, 2020,[4] James refused to concede, which Peters termed "pathetic."[35] James initially insisted that the election had not been administered fairly.[36] He established a joint legal fund with theRepublican National Committee to challenge the results.[37] James claimed there was "ample evidence" for an investigation, but offered none.[38] He raised $2 million after the election as he sought to challenge the election results, and he unsuccessfully attempted to block certification of the results of the election, which he lost to Peters by 1.7% of the vote, which was much closer than originally projected.[39] James conceded on November 24 over social media, congratulating Peters.[40]
During his campaign, James pledged to give 5% of his campaign contributions to charity. The James fundraising committee reported about $46.12 million in total contributions for the 2020 election and has given more than $2.36 million to charities following through on his pledge.[41]
James won the Republican primary in the 2022 election inMichigan's 10th congressional district.[42] He defeated DemocratCarl Marlinga in the November general election.[43]
James won a second term on November 5, 2024, in a rematch against Marlinga, winning 51.1% of the vote.[44]
As of the118th Congress, James is a member of the following committees.[45]
During his 2018 Senate campaign, James ran on a typical Republican platform, describing himself on his campaign website as "a pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-business conservative."[46] He emphasized his desire to defundPlanned Parenthood[46] and comparedRoe v. Wade, theUnited States Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, to "genocide."[47] He opposes thedeath penalty, does not believe employers should be able to fire workers due to their sexual orientation, and opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana.[48]
James says he wants to repeal and replace theAffordable Care Act (Obamacare), which he has called "a monstrosity."[49] According toThe Detroit Free Press, James was careful not to take a position on theTrump administration's lawsuit seeking to immediately strike down the entire ACA as unconstitutional.[50] When pressed in a September 2020 interview, he said he was against the ACA lawsuit without a replacement plan in place, but did not criticize Republicans for pushing the lawsuit.[51]
James supportedTed Cruz in the2016 Republican Party presidential primaries.[48] He later became a Trump supporter,[48] andtweeted in 2018 that, if elected to the Senate, he would back Trump "2,000%."[52][53] During his 2020 campaign, James accepted Trump's endorsement and campaigned alongside him.[54][55] James has not been publicly critical of Trump or his actions.[50] During a meeting with black faith leaders, James was asked whether he disagreed with Trump on anything. James said, "Everything from cutting Great Lakes funding to 'shithole countries' to speaking ill of the dead. I mean, where do you want to start?"[56] In a leaked audio recording of a meeting with African American leaders in Michigan, James was asked why he hadn't publicly criticized Trump. He said he thought it was better to be silent in public in order to gain access to Trump. James said, "Donald Trump doesn't need less Black folks around him, he needs more," and that his goal was "achieving equity and equality for our people, not standing up on Twitter and condemning folks."[57] During the campaign, Democrats sought to tie James to Trump, while James has said his candidacy was not a referendum on Trump.[46]
During his 2020 campaign, James declined to take specific positions on a number of policy questions, including how theSocial Security Trust Fund would be protected from the impact of apayroll tax cut, whether the Senate should vote to confirm a newSupreme Court justice to fill the vacancy created by thedeath of Ruth Bader Ginsburg before or after the 2020 presidential election, and whether he thinksmilitary bases named for Confederate generals should be renamed.[50][58][59]
On April 7, 2025, James announced his candidacy forgovernor of Michigan in the2026 election.[5]
James married his wife, Elizabeth, in 2012.[60] They have three sons.[61] When James was still dating Elizabeth, he had an encounter with police at a mall in a suburb of Detroit in which the officers drew their guns on him; James believes that if Elizabeth had not been beside him, he might have been killed. He has also expressed his fear of being killed whenever police pull him over for atraffic stop.[62]
James is anondenominational Christian.[6] He lives inShelby Township, Michigan.[63]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John James | 518,564 | 54.7 | |
| Republican | Sandy Pensler | 429,885 | 45.3 | |
| Republican | William White (write-in) | 57 | .01 | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Debbie Stabenow (incumbent) | 2,214,478 | 52.26 | −6.54% | |
| Republican | John James | 1,938,818 | 45.76 | +7.78% | |
| Green | Marcia Squier | 40,204 | 0.95 | +0.35 | |
| Constitution | George Huffman III | 27,251 | 0.64 | +0.08 | |
| Natural Law | John Howard Wilhelm | 16,502 | 0.39 | +0.15 | |
| Write-in | Total write-in | 18 | 0.00043 | −0.0014 | |
| Majority | 275,660 | 6.5% | −14.32 | ||
| Turnout | 4,237,231 | 100.0% | −8.9 | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Gary Peters (incumbent) | 2,734,568 | 49.90% | −4.71% | |
| Republican | John James | 2,642,233 | 48.22% | +6.89% | |
| Constitution | Valerie Willis | 50,597 | 0.92% | −0.28% | |
| Green | Marcia Squier | 39,217 | 0.72% | −0.12% | |
| Natural Law | Doug Dern | 13,093 | 0.24% | N/A | |
| Write-in | 12 | 0.00% | ±0.00% | ||
| Total votes | 5,479,720 | 100.0% | |||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John James | 159,202 | 48.80 | |
| Democratic | Carl Marlinga | 157,602 | 48.31 | |
| Working Class | Andrea Kirby | 5,905 | 1.81 | |
| Libertarian | Mike Saliba | 3,524 | 1.08 | |
| Write-in | 4 | 0.00 | ||
| Total votes | 326,237 | 100.0 | ||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John James (incumbent) | 217,437 | 51.13 | |
| Democratic | Carl Marlinga | 191,363 | 44.99 | |
| Working Class | Andrea L. Kirby | 11,162 | 2.62 | |
| Libertarian | Mike Saliba | 5,339 | 1.26 | |
| Total votes | 425,301 | 100.00 | ||
| Republicanhold | ||||
Among James' top legislative priorities is creating an educational environment that gives parents and teachers more power, saying poor education outcomes are the root cause of many of the country's problems.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromMichigan (Class 1) 2018 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromMichigan (Class 2) 2020 | Most recent |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMichigan's 10th congressional district 2023–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 326th | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
