Mike Detmer, the wildly controversial, uber-uber-conservative candidate who burst onto Livingston County’s political scene in 2020, is again running for the Republican nomination in the 8th Congressional District in 2022.
As lines are currently drawn, the 8th District encompasses Livingston and Ingham counties, as well as northern Oakland County. Detmer, a used-car salesman from Howell, finished second in the four-way GOP 2020 primary to Paul Junge, despite carrying Livingston County with 36.5% of the vote. After the primary, Detmer refused to support fellow Republican Junge.
Junge went on to lose the seat to incumbent U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the General Election.
Detmer attracted statewide attention during his campaign after posing for a mask-less selfie in April with members of the Proud Boys at an Operation Lockdown/pro-Trump rally in Lansing. Since then, he has gone on to advocate the killing of those he deemed guilty of “election fraud” in 2020 in a Nov. 20 Facebook post, which said “election fraud” and “fixing” would “necessitate firing squads.”
Saying he was buoyed by his losing GOP primary campaign to take on Slotkin, Detmer formed an exploratory committee to run in 2022 against one of three women: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Slotkin, or state Sen. Lana Theis.
Michigan will likely lose one Congressional seat after the 2020 Census, and it’s unknown how the districts will be re-drawn. No matter; Detmer said in a release that he is confident about winning in 2022 because he will have in place a campaign team more “robust and effective.”
“We will be able to pivot our efforts as needed to win the seat no matter how the lines are redrawn,” Detmer said. “Even if that means facing a different challenger or challengers.”
“In any case, much prayer and guidance from God will be paramount as we move forward.”
Detmer also has this political video in his arsenal:
