Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist drops out of governor race, announces SOS bid
Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist
LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, who was seeking to be the next governor, has shifted his focus to a different role - Secretary of State.
Gilchrist announced Monday that there may be a time for him to serve as governor, but that time is not now.
"At heart, I’m a public servant, an entrepreneur, a dad, a husband, and an engineer who spent a lot of my life making government actually work for people. I’m not done with that, not by a long shot," Gilchrist said in a video posted to social media. "As Secretary of State, I will shine a light on dark money and put the public first. I will modernize licensing and registration by providing smart, 21st-century service. I’ll protect your privacy and never allow your identity, voter registration information, or license plate data to be mined by big tech companies or surveilled by the Trump administration."
Others seeking the SOS role include Ingham County Clerk Barbara Byrum, Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie, former state Sen. Adam Hollier, former state lottery commissioner Suzanna Shkreli, and Timothy Smith, a west Michigan resident who has not served in politics.
Big picture view:
The run for governor follows a historically long tradition of lieutenant governors running for the big seat and getting endorsed by the sitting governor. However, historically, those who have done this haven't won.
William Milliken, John Engler, Jennifer Granholm, and Rick Snyder's lieutenant governors all ran for the seat – and all lost.