MEMO: Mike Duggan’s Expensive, Self-Serving Road to Nowhere

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: DGA Senior Political Advisor Nichole Johnson
DATE: October 28, 2025
SUBJECT: Mike Duggan’s Expensive, Self-Serving Road to Nowhere

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As the competitive race for governor in Michigan continues to develop, one thing is becoming clear: Mike Duggan’s self-serving and expensive campaign has no path to winning a general election.

First, public polling has consistently shown that Mike Duggan is hovering between roughly 10-20% of the vote, with no clear path to winning a general election. This has remained the same all year, despite Duggan’s allies spending more than $1.2 million in publicly disclosed advertising on his behalf. See Duggan’s vote share in key polls:

• 12% in a three-way race poll from Plymouth Union Public Research (October)
• 10% in a three-way race in Michigan’s competitive 35th Senate District from MIRS/Target Insyght (September)
• 16% in a three-way race poll in the Mitchell-MIRS-Michigan poll (March)
• 21% in a three-way race poll from Target Insyght (March)

Second, while third party candidates already face a large uphill battle to build a winning coalition, Mike Duggan has already tied himself to MAGA donors and taken harmful positions that are deeply out-of-touch with Michigan families on key issues that may define the race like health care. This is especially alienating to Democratic and Independent voters. 

• Raising “big questions about his political realignment,” reports have made clear that “a sizable share” of Mike Duggan’s campaign fundraising “comes from donors of President Donald Trump, GOP party leaders, and conservative power brokers,” including former Michigan GOP Chair and Trump ally Ron Weiser and charter school profiteer JC Huizenga as two quick examples.

• As Donald Trump and Republicans like John James push an extreme and harmful agenda in DC, Mike Duggan has defended GOP health care cuts, saying “these Medicaid cuts are not as bad as they look,” and even expressed frustration that Democrats are pushing back by saying “Republicans want to cut your health care.”

• And while Elon Musk – who is toxic among Democratic voters – was dismantling the federal government, Duggan said that the first thing he would do if elected is “go see Elon Musk” and shared a post about starting a new political party with Musk.

Additionally, in recent races for governor with similar dynamics, third party candidates polled higher at the start of the cycle, but only earned a tiny margin of the vote at the end of the election.

In Oregon for example, four public polls conducted in August and September of 2022, Independent candidate for Oregon governor Betsy Johnson was receiving support from between 16% and 21% of respondents before ultimately receiving 8.6% of the vote on Election Day. According to Oregon campaign finance reports, Betsy Johnson spent a total of $17.8 million from 2021-2022.

In conclusion, while Mike Duggan’s third party candidacy is a factor both political parties will need to consider, public polling, his decision to alienate key sectors of the electorate and recent examples of similar statewide races make it clear he has no path to winning a general election.

It’s the Democratic candidates who will earn the trust of a winning coalition of voters because they’re on the side of working families when it comes to lowering costs, improving education, expanding health care and standing up to the GOP-led chaos in DC.

That is why Michigan Democrats won by large margins in statewide elections in both 2022, which was supposed to be a challenging environment nationally, and in 2018 during the last midterm election cycle when Republicans controlled the White House, Senate and House.

The DGA has won competitive races with high-profile third party candidates on the ballot – and the same will be true in 2026.

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