DETROIT (WWJ) - Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig said he will run as a write-in candidate for the gubernatorial ballot in the August primary after the Michigan Supreme Court disqualified him from the ballot over alleged forged signatures.
Craig appeared on Fox 2's "Let it Rip" with Roop Raj, as reported by The Detroit News, where he stated his campaign for governor was not over and it was his intention to "not give up" after his name was kept off the ballot.
"They have robbed me ... And guess what? There are so many people that reached out through my campaign and said: 'Chief, you’re a fighter. Don’t give up. Continue to fight. We need you to do what you're doing,'" Craig said.
Craig's gubernatorial campaign was thrown into question last month after Michigan Bureau of Elections determined 11,113 of the 21,305 signatures that his team submitted in order to appear on the ballot were forgeries.
After the bureau removed the invalid signatures, Craig was missing just under 5,000 signed names from the 15,000-threshold his campaign needed.
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In addition to Craig, four other GOP candidates for Michigan governor were also shy of reaching the required 15,000 signatures after the bureau found signed names that they say were forged by circulators.
Craig and three other candidates argued that the bureau should have inspected each signature by themselves. They said that whole pages of signatures from suspect circulators were invalidated that were not properly canvassed.
Craig appealed to the Court of Claims and then up the Michigan Supreme Court who sided with the Bureau of Elections and the Board of State Canvassers on Friday that Craig and the other three candidates were to stay off the August ballot.
"This is crap. You know it’s crap," Craig said of the petition decision. "I have been approached by so many folks across the state who have called me and said: 'Chief, continue to fight.' I got emails, text messages through my campaign that says: 'Chief, we know you were robbed.' And you know what? I'm not going to roll over. Because this is not about me as a candidate. This is more about the voters of Michigan. They deserve to have the best candidate. And I'mma tell you: I'm going to win. I am the best candidate to unseat Governor Whitmer."
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Craig was considered a front-runner for the Republican party prior to the MI Supreme Court's ruling.
Whitmer is looking to secure her second term for governor and submitted 30,000 petition signatures back in March to secure her place on the ballot.
Craig told Raj that he "absolutely" believed he could run successfully as a write-in candidate.