Saturday March 20th 2021
Michigan Governor Ben Laurion announces Presidential run
Michigan Governor Ben Laurion has announced he is seeking the Republican nomination for President. The 50 year-old tweeted "I'm in", just after midnight (est) joining a field of four others so far in his party competing for the 2022 election.
The two-term Governor first elected in 2014, and re-elected four years later, is term-limited next year, formally announced his run for President at a morning event in Lansing. In his announcement speech, he promoted his legislative achievements as Governor including sorting out the states finances, lowering taxes, passing voter ID rules and anti-abortion measures. "If our reforms can work in a state like Michigan , they can work anywhere in America," he said. His appeal as a candidate is that he seems to be a candidate who energises the grass-roots conservative activists while, as a two term incumbent Governor of a moderate state (which voted Democrat at a Presidential level, the same day, he won both of his gubernatorial victories), he is still acceptable to the party's establishment, and appeal to "Vinick Republicans" and independent voters.
In running he will need to bridge that gap as the ideological components of his party are courted with more focused appeals by his competitors such as Ohio Senator Ruth Norton-Stewart and former Oklahoma Senator Alan Duke for the conservative vote, whilst he will be competing with Illinois Senator Jasper Irving for the more moderate and independently minded voters. If he could post strong results in solidly conservative Iowa and independent-minded New Hampshire in the opening primary battles next January, he'll have demonstrated that he can achieve such a feat and could be well on his way to the nomination.
He has already demonstrated an ability to win over voters who traditionally lean away from Republicans. Importantly, he’s done so without sacrificing his ideological conservative purity on issues that matter to the base of the party. He’s in favour of cutting government spending and lowering taxes. He opposes abortion, although it’s unclear whether he would actually change abortion laws. In virtually all policy areas, he is a “model conservative” but he has managed to present those policies in a more moderate and appealing way.
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