John James brought his campaign for Michigan governor to Mack Avenue in Grosse Pointe Monday afternoon, standing alongside local parents and students to talk up school rights and girls' sports as the Republican nominee campaigns with just weeks left before Election Day.
According to FOX 2 Detroit, James used the event to spotlight Shane Pruitt, a Grosse Pointe parent who is suing Grosse Pointe Public Schools over teachers displaying rainbow flags in classrooms. The district issued Pruitt a trespassing notice after he posted video of the flags inside a middle school, and the James campaign has since connected Pruitt with a constitutional law attorney, the station reports. The underlying dispute traces back to September 2024, when Pruitt recorded pride and transgender flags on display inside Parcells Middle School in Grosse Pointe Woods, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.
A Federal Court Already Weighed In
District officials at the time cited staff complaints of educational disruption after Pruitt called the flags political in his online post, and police were sent to his home before a formal no-trespass ban followed in October 2024, per the outlet's reporting. That standoff reached a turning point in July 2026, when U.S. District Judge Robert J. White issued a preliminary injunction ordering the district to lift the no-trespass ban and remove Pruitt's photo from school entrance displays, finding the district likely engaged in unconstitutional First Amendment retaliation, Michigan Capitol Confidential reported.
James is not the only figure the campaign brought forward Monday. Briley Lechner, described in the FOX 2 Detroit report as a Grosse Pointe volleyball athlete, said James has the courage to speak for female athletes and protect girls' sports. That appearance arrives against a backdrop of statewide rules: Michigan High School Athletic Association guidelines require local districts to provide documentation, including transcripts and gender-identity records, at least 30 days before the tournament opt-out due date, and require a waiver permitting disclosure of protected records; eligibility is reviewed case by case, according to FactCheck.org.
James Pitches School Choice And Board Accountability
At the Grosse Pointe stop, James said children are the centerpiece of his education agenda and argued the Michigan State Board of Education and its superintendents are not accountable to the government, per the FOX 2 Detroit account. He proposed giving parents more money to obtain resources for their children, pointing to the incoming federal Education Freedom Tax Credit as the vehicle.
That tax credit took a concrete regulatory step forward on October 1, when the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service issued proposed rules under Internal Revenue Code Section 25F. Per the Internal Revenue Service, the credit would let individual taxpayers claim up to $1,700 and joint filers up to $3,400 for contributions to K-12 scholarship granting organizations starting January 1, 2027. Federal guidelines require individual state governors to formally elect participation before resident families can access the scholarship grants, the agency notes.
James's claim about board accountability runs up against the structure laid out in the Michigan Constitution. Article VIII, Section 3 establishes an eight-member State Board of Education whose members are nominated by political party conventions and elected statewide for eight-year terms, with the governor serving only as a non-voting, ex-officio member, according to the Michigan Legislature. That board holds sole authority to appoint the state superintendent of public instruction.
A Tight Race Heading Into The Final Debate
James, a Republican U.S. congressman, and Democratic opponent Jocelyn Benson, the current Michigan secretary of state, are competing in what FOX 2 Detroit describes as a tight race for governor — the first open-seat contest in the state in eight years, after Democrats held a statewide trifecta including the secretary of state, attorney general and governor's offices for the past two terms. Benson made campaign stops of her own in metro Detroit over the weekend, the station reports.
The two candidates met for their first debate in Grand Rapids on October 6, sparring over data centers, Medicaid funding, gas prices and the state income tax, according to the FOX 2 Detroit report. A separate account from Bridge Michigan of that same debate noted James clarified he opposes a state-mandated moratorium on data center construction, arguing local municipalities rather than Lansing officials should govern such projects — a shift after he had faced campaign criticism over potential state freezes on energy-intensive data centers. Benson, for her part, said she was open to suspending Michigan's state gas tax amid high prices, Bridge Michigan reported.
An October Mitchell Research poll had Benson leading James 46% to 39%, according to Hoodline's earlier polling coverage. The candidates are set to meet again for their second and final debate on October 15 at WDIV-TV in Metro Detroit, per Bridge Michigan, with more than 201,000 Michiganders having already cast absentee ballots ahead of that faceoff.
