LANSING, Mich. — Republican Perry Johnson, a Michigan businessman and former candidate for governor, is launching a campaign committee to potentially run for president along with funding Super Bowl ads to back his possible bid in the key state of Iowa.
Johnson announced the formation of his presidential committee Thursday, a step that will allow him to begin raising and spending money.
In a statement, Johnson said he supported former President Donald Trump, a Republican, in 2016 and 2020 and "could very easily support him in 2024."
Trump has already started his third campaign for the Republican nomination for president.
But Johnson said politicians from both parties "have failed to provide adequate solutions to the most pressing problem facing our country: runaway spending and the inflation that came with it."
"I will be visiting Iowa in the next week, opening an office and planning for my Iowa bus tour and formal announcement for President of the United States in the months ahead," Johnson added.
Iowa has traditionally been the state that votes first in the presidential nominating order.
Johnson, an Oakland County resident, self-funded his 2022 campaign for Michigan governor before being one of five GOP gubernatorial candidates who were disqualified from the primary ballot because of a wave of fraudulent petition signatures.
Campaigning as the "quality guru," Johnson spent millions of dollars on TV advertisements, including a Super Bowl ad last year, to boost his bid for governor in 2022. Early polling had Johnson in a tight Republican primary race with former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who also lost his spot on the primary ballot.
Johnson's new ad will be released in multiple television media markets across Iowa, including Des Moines,Sioux City, Cedar Falls and the Quad Cities, according to a statement. The cost of the Super Bowl advertising was $192,000 and additional buys will be placed next week, the statement said.
Johnson's businesses include Perry Johnson Registrars Inc., which operates in the certification and registration industry, according to its website. The site says Johnson is the author of "the best-selling definitive text" on international quality standards, "ISO 9000: Meeting the New International Standards."
He's currently promoting a book he's written called "Two Cents To Save America."
In a statement Thursday, Paul Cordes, chief of staff for the Michigan GOP, said, "Had Perry not been the victim of an unprecedented signature fraud scheme and then illegally kicked off the ballot by a left-wing secretary of state, I believe we would have a Republican governor and Legislature today.”
The 2022 GOP nominee for governor, Tudor Dixon, lost to Democrat Gretchen Whitmer by 11 percentage points.
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