MI-GOV: Michigan governor candidate Mike Duggan says his friends dropped $100 million to flip state House for GOP
Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is pitching himself as a bipartisan unifier in his independent bid for governor — but his ties to the mega-donors who financed the Republican takeover of the Michigan House suggest a different story.
During a September zoom meeting with the lobbying firm Kelley Cawthorne, the company’s President Melissa McKinley asked Duggan how he creates realistic expectations for his campaign promises, which include bridging the divide between Republicans and Democrats to “deliver results”.
In a statement to Heartland Signal, Duggan’s spokesperson Andrea Bitely claimed that Duggan was making a joke, and that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) led a $100 million fundraising effort for the state GOP.
“They [Kelley Cawthorne] were also aware that it was Governor Rick Snyder who had led the $100 million 2024 Republican House campaign,” Bitely said. “Governor Snyder is not a friend or supporter of Mayor Duggan – he’s behind the Governor campaign of Aric Nesbitt, one of Duggan’s opponents. The Mayor was joking in referring to Snyder’s group as his friends.”
https://heartlandsignal.com/2026/05/20/michigan-governor-candidate-mike-duggan-says-his-friends-dropped-100-million-to-flip-state-house-for-gop/