Michigan’s Rick Snyder Apparently Thinking Of Running For President

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is apparently considering running for President:

Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who has kept the door open to running for president but not taken active steps, had a meeting with top political advisers last week to discuss moving forward with a potential 2016 bid, sources familiar with the session told POLITICO.

The former Gateway Computers CEO has also formed a new 501(c)(4) to pay for political travel and to tout his success story in Michigan, which could include airing commercials beyond Michigan. It is called “Making Government Accountable.”

Some top Michigan GOP hands believe that the “one tough nerd” technocrat could jump into the race later this spring; others say privately that he’s just trying to raise his national profile and realized he would face long odds.

Snyder ad maker Fred Davis, who declined to comment on the meeting, said the governor is “pondering the decision.”

A spokeswoman for Snyder, Sara Wurfel, said the governor wants to get the word out about what he’s accomplished with “relentless positive action” but said he remains “focused on being the best governor he can be.”

“It’s about helping address the perception-lags-reality challenge that we have – both with Detroit and for the state as a whole,” she emailed.

Two years ago, Snyder was among those Republican Governors from the Class of 2010 who was deemed to be the most vulnerable, but his handling of the situation in Detroit, which has been largely successful, and the improving economy in Michigan boosted his profile inside the state and he ended up winning re-election easily. That being side, much like his neighbor to the south Ohio Governor John Kaisch, it’s rather obvious that Snyder would be something of a long shot if he were to enter the race.Whether he runs or not, though, Snyder is likely to be among the names mentioned as a potential running mate for whomever the Republican nominee ends up being.

FILED UNDER: 2016 Election, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Gustopher says:

    There is a trailing “A” on the post — I believe it to be a misspelled Fonzie “Ayyyyyyy!”

  2. James Joyner says:

    Dee Snyder is equally likely to win the presidency.

  3. LaMont says:

    Snyder rode the coattails of the auto bailout and claimed victory when the job market picked up. What he will not gloat about is how he lied about balancing the budget every year until he was reelected. Then, out of nowhere, admitted that Michigan is facing a deficit of $350 million directly after the 2014 election and having the nerve to blame it on the Granholm administration prior to him winning the 2010 election. Come to find out that the Republican led state gave so much tax breaks to corporations that they effectively crapped on the “more jobs equals more revenue” equation as they eliminated the Michigan business tax without also cutting out all the tax subsidies businesses could claim for hiring more people. After the initial “shot in the arm” from the auto bailout, Michigan’s economy actually began to slow down while most other states were and are picking up. Snyder is a fraud and I would love him to run for President because he would get exposed for what he really is – a Reaganomics blowhard with no backbone to push back against extreme rightwing views.

    And oh by the way. Snyder won the 2014 election by a relatively close margin over a no name Democrat in a record low turnout.

  4. An Interested Party says:

    Jeez, Republicans are coming out of the woodwork to run for president…how many more will it be? Eventually it will be Hillary vs. a cast of thousands…

  5. Franklin says:

    These days I typically vote for the D’s, but I did vote for Snyder in 2010 (can’t precisely remember why). He’s nothing special, but we’ve seen far worse.

    I don’t think he could ever win the nomination because he isn’t completely hellbent on the social issues. (He threatened to veto a bill like Indiana’s religious liberty thing well before it had become a fiasco.) He has been reasonable on a couple other issues as well, mostly local stuff like building a new bridge to Canada. Most of the economic side is, as LaMont says, typical Republican tripe like union-busting and tax breaks for trillionaires.

    As far as I can tell, though, he’s a decent person. That’s not going to be enough to get noticed.

  6. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @An Interested Party:

    It does look as though the Clown Car is becoming a Clown Bus …

  7. CET says:

    I absolutely think Snyder should consider a presidential run, but in 2020 or 2024. The field is already too crowded this time around, and he’s too moderate on social issues for the older bracket of the GOP primary electorate. IIRC, he’s also not as slick and ‘charismatic’ as your typical presidential nominee, though I’ve never understood why people like that sort of thing in the first place. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s just making some noise so that he’ll be considered a more serious contender next time around (or is trying to get his name out there for a VP slot). Either way, good for him.

    As for Michigan’s economy . . . the recovery has had predictable casualties (sorry unions, you break it, you buy it) and the state’s economy is still pretty rough. But it’s a whole lot better than the lost decade under Granholm et al.