The 2022 Michigan Governor race is a David vs. Goliath story. Current Governor Gretchen Whitmer – with her years of experience in the government machine, barrage of political connections, and massive war chest, including from out-of-State donors – is the metaphorical Goliath compared to the relatively unknown and resource-challenged remaining field of Republican challengers on the ballot vying for the role of David. Many people across the State still don’t know their names. But that is because they have all come directly out of the crowd themselves, not from high-profile government positions. This can be a good thing when the campaign really gets moving.

It is perhaps fitting that it came down to this scenario. The People of Michigan have been forced to needlessly suffer under the tyranny of Whitmer’s botched COVID response – and in many ways are still suffering the lingering effects of her wrongheaded actions. While there are other important issues at stake in this election, the one that rises above all others right now is the debate over what the government’s role is in a “State of Emergency” like COVID and indeed the extent of their power to coerce the People in general.

Given that none of the remaining Republican candidates can hope to beat Whitmer in fundraising and advertising reach, the nominee must be able to capitalize on grassroots support and rely on organic growth of their message to reach the People. A big part of that message must be an outright rejection of what happened to Michigan during Whitmer’s COVID response; Republicans must make the People remember how they felt during those years, explain how they were wronged, and offer a logical alternative. Three things are required of a candidate to accomplish this; the right principles, the charisma to effectively convey the importance of these principles to the People in such a short period of time, and the courage to actually do this amongst the inevitable vitriolic attacks to come. This is the difference between a David that can slay Goliath with the Principles of Right on his side and a washout that will be crushed under the weight of the incumbent’s massive fist.

If there is any doubt that the People have an appetite for freedom and truly want a competent, less restrictive government, take a look at Florida. Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida was far less restrictive during COVID and performed much better than heavily restricted Michigan. They suffered less long-term “unintended consequences” too. This likely, at least partially, explains why Florida continues to be a desirable State with positive migration trends in 2020 and 2021 while Michigan remains a net migration loser, surely exacerbated by Whitmer’s terrible policies. DeSantis’ principles and courage to act on them are a big part of his appeal. He stood up against a Goliath of sorts in the form of the massive Federal bureaucracy and corporate media demonizing him at every turn. He has been vindicated. Does Michigan have a candidate for governor that mirrors DeSantis’ appeal and promotes his winning model?

Principles? What Principles?

The COVID hysteria has revealed to us the tyrannical lengths Whitmer and others like her are willing to go to impose their will upon the People at the Executive level in order to achieve their desired ends. Even after the Michigan Supreme Court found the law she was erroneously citing to justify her actions to be unconstitutional, she continued to abuse her authority and reject the input of the Legislature, citing other poorly written laws and rules that in part suffer from the same erroneous reasoning as the one deemed unconstitutional. While the extent of that contempt for our system on the part of Whitmer is the subject of another article, the key takeaway is that she is clearly bent on doing things her way, despite any evidence her actions may be impractical, illegal, or unethical. While COVID restrictions have thankfully lapsed as obsessively reported cases of the disease subsided, most of the bad laws and extensive bureaucracy that enabled them are still in place and are poised to be abused again by the next governor if a new “emergency” is declared.

Michigan has three main choices;

1. More of Governor Whitmer’s unconstitutional, rights-infringing bureaucracy.

2. A less-than-principled, wishy-washy Republican candidate that may not completely understand the nature of the problem and/or will settle to compromise rights away for political purposes. One that will fail to captivate the grassroots support and foster a sense of both the excitement and urgency necessary to counter and surpass the incumbent advantage.

3. Ryan D. Kelley, a man of principle and integrity that has correctly opposed every aspect of the government’s overreach from the beginning, avoided counter-productive compromises with shady political influences, and displayed a solid understanding of both the nature of the problem and the reasonable alternatives that would provide solutions without infringing upon the fundamental rights of the People. A man that has won over the support of some of the most ardent defenders of liberty in Michigan and has already withstood – and handled with grace – relentless nasty attacks by opponents.

Ryan D. Kelley is the principled choice and the David we need to take on Goliath In November!

Ryan Kelley Was Speaking Up and Attending Protests From the Start of COVID

Many politicians and pundits only came out against the tyrannical actions of “health authorities” and coercive government actors after the fact. Ryan Kelley was opposing these wrongheaded policies from the beginning and helped shape the narrative against them. From organizing and attending protests, to calling out false compromises and half-measures, Ryan Kelley has been a thought leader and grassroots organizer on the issue. Check out these two articles from his website that detail some of the things he has done throughout 2020 and 2021 regarding the COVID response and more:

How Ryan D. Kelley Fought for You in 2020

How Ryan D. Kelley Kept Fighting for You in 2021

Opposing Vaccine Mandates and Mask Mandates

“Vaccine mandates will erode all other freedoms we cherish in America if we allow them to be forced and enforced on the American people.” – Ryan Kelley

Long before COVID, those of us in the medical freedom community have been fighting a long battle against oppressive and unnecessary vaccine mandates in schools and opposing mega-corporations using government coercion to help their bottom line. The COVID era showed us why Vaccine Choice, which was labeled before COVID as a “fringe issue,” is actually THE liberty issue of our time. The same goes with unscientific mask mandates for the general public. We must bolster the fundamental right to bodily integrity/autonomy and make the idea of mandated medicine unconscionable to the public. Ryan Kelley has proven through his words and actions that he understands the importance of vaccine choice and keeping the government out of private health decisions. He openly opposed Biden’s OSHA Vaccine Mandate. He stood up to challenge State and City of Detroit mask requirements for election poll worker training that may deter people from volunteering to work polls, hindering the democratic process and stopping people from fulfilling a necessary civic duty. Depriving himself of a chance to promote his campaign, Ryan Kelley boycotted the recent Mackinac Conference when they insisted on vaccine requirements for full participation. They offered an exception, but Ryan Kelley stood on principle to let everyone know tolerating and complying with policies and programs like vaccine passports are wrong. Ryan has called masking and vaccination requirements unconstitutional and regards them as a violation of the Constitutionally-protected right of bodily integrity, a threat to liberty interests, and at odds with due process.

Making the Right Call on Messaging and the Unlock Michigan 2.0 Petition

All the remaining Republican candidates for Governor claim to oppose the type of top-down coercion Whitmer conducted during the COVID “state of emergency.” It is likely all of them would act far better than Whitmer in such a scenario, but that is really a low bar. What we must do is choose a candidate that will not only refuse to partake in the same behavior themselves, but also one that understands what is needed to fix the problem of allowing it in the first place. Tudor Dixon, who is endorsed by the DeVos family and establishment Republicans like Mike Shirkey, is heavily funded by PAC money and seems to be the Republican establishment’s choice for governor. These types of people helped write the bad, vague laws Whitmer used in the first place and did little to promote positive change during COVID. Candidates like Dixon are not as likely to push for the change we need because it threatens the “purple” image of a “moderate” they are trying to craft. “Purple” isn’t going to cut it for a Republican this year because the shade of indigo Whitmer is pushing is better funded.

Garrett Soldano shares much in common with Ryan Kelley in terms of policy and campaign beginnings. In a recent debate, he said agreed with Ryan about eight times during his responses. A big tell for the type of policy Soldano will tolerate as governor however is his support of the Unlock Michigan 2.0 petition. The first Unlock Michigan petition was successful and simply sought to remove the unconstitutional 1945 law that Whitmer was using as part of her COVID response justification. Michigan liberty activists knew that effort was not enough (because Whitmer would use other means) but it did no harm in itself other than possibly distracting from more fruitful efforts like the Restore Freedom Initiative which fell short due to less funding and other support. Unlock 2.0 however may do more harm than good by empowering the legislature and local health departments/district boards of health to extend orders that may be contrary to rights. It legitimizes the ambiguity these authorities have been improperly taking advantage of. It updates legislative intent for the entire law in the age of COVID, which may backfire on proponents of fundamental rights in court someday. Unlock 2.0 does nothing to protect fundamental rights or stop the improper delegation of authority from the Legislative to the Executive Branch (which was at issue in the Supreme Court case against Whitmer and applies here as well). The legislative check at the State level will mean nothing if Democrats regain the majority or RINOS side with proponents of extension. Democrat local jurisdictions surely will opt to extend the orders despite pushback, and if there is no chance of voting out the decision-makers at this level, then constituents and their rights are out of luck. Ryan Kelley correctly opposes the Unlock 2.0 approach to addressing the problem of government overreach as a compromise that will do nothing but make our fight for Constitutional governance and rights protections even more difficult. This fight will be definitely be hard, but Kelley’s Contract with Michigan is a great place to start.

If preserving medical freedom, securing individual rights from infringement, and restoring Constitutional governance in Michigan are important to you, the choice is clear; Ryan D. Kelley is the candidate to support for the August Republican Primary and the November general election.