Tom Leonard / Photo credit Plunkett Cooney law firm.
FOX 2 - The latest candidate for Michigan governor has thrown his hat in the ring for the 2026 race.
Tom Leonard, a former Speaker of the House, joins three other Republican candidates seeking the GOP nomination. He previously served in the state legislature from 2013 to 2018.
Leonard announced his bid on Tuesday and will be competing against US Rep. John James, former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, state Senate Leader Aric Nesbitt and truck driver Anthony Hudson.
The backstory:
He served as the Michigan House chamber’s top lawmaker from 2017 to 2018.
Leonard ran for attorney general in Michigan twice, losing to Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel in the 2018 general election by 3 percentage points and to Matthew DePerno, an attorney, in the 2022 GOP primary.
In a video announcing his campaign, Leonard said he is focused on affordability and education.
"Michigan is at a crossroads," Leonard said in a social media post. "Our unemployment rate ranks 49th out of 50, and less than 40% of our third-graders can read at a proficient level. We are also losing our loved ones to other states.
"A positive vision, hard work, and a lot of grit are what it's going to take to turn this state around. We're all in. Join our team and let's make Michigan a growth state again to keep our kids here."
Governor Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited and cannot run again leading to a crowded field of potential successors including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan running as an independent, and Democrat Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.
Leonard is currently a partner at Plunkett Cooney law firm and served three terms in the Michigan House of Representatives.
In his Plunkett Cooney bio, he said he helped reform Michigan’s teacher pension fund, created a bi-partisan task force to tackle Michigan’s broken mental health system, updating "Kevin’s Law," ending driver’s responsibility fees, modernizing the state’s health insurance code, and re-writing the state’s preliminary exam law.
Leonard also served as an assistant Michigan attorney general and as a prosecutor in Genesee County, where he worked the Special Crimes Division.
The Source: Information Tom Leonard's social media, his bio on the Plunkett Cooney website and from the Associated Press contributed to this report.