President Donald Trump’s kingmaker status in Republican primaries was on the line Tuesday in Michigan’s GOP gubernatorial nomination showdown – and the president passed the test.

Republican Rep. John James, a two-time U.S. Senate nominee in the crucial Great Lakes battleground state who was endorsed by Trump in late June, topped multimillionaire businessman Perry Johnson to win the GOP primary, the Associated Press reported.

The West Point graduate and Army Ranger who served multiple combat tours as an Apache helicopter pilot in the Iraq war will face off in a high-stakes and expensive general election battle with two-term Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee, in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

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James preached party unity in his victory speech.

«The primary is over now. We come together. One team, one fight, one mission to save Michigan. To those who supported me. Thank you. And for those who did not, I’m going to work every single day to earn your trust,» he told supporters.

The GOP primary between James and Johnson, a former gubernatorial and presidential candidate, turned combative. Johnson, who is White, referred to James, one of the few Black Republicans in Congress, as a «DEI candidate» and in a recent debate accused James of playing the «race card.» James, meanwhile, called Johnson «desperate.»

Johnson, who shelled out millions of his own money into his campaign, dramatically outspent James in the primary showdown.

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson campaigns on eve of the Michigan primary at a campaign event on August 3, 2026 in Novi, Michigan. (Luke Trevisan/Fox News)

But James told Fox News on the eve of the primary that «nobody outworks a ranger,» and «money isn’t the only thing. People want someone who resonates with them, someone who has the proven leadership capability to turn the state around.»

James and Johnson were the final two Republican candidates in a nomination race that previously included former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and state Senate Republican leader Aric Nesbitt. They both suspended their GOP gubernatorial campaigns, but their names remained on the primary ballot.

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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, is running for governor in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Trump gave James a boost last month as he campaigned with the congressman at a rally in Michigan.

The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries this spring and summer, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Kentucky and Texas, as well as the Louisiana primary.

But Trump’s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped in early June when his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.

Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

Trump-backed candidates won two of the three top races in key GOP primary runoff elections in Georgia and Alabama in June, with the one setback coming against billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who shelled out over $100 million of his own money to boost his campaign.

President Donald Trump, center, and GOP Senate candidate former Rep. Mike Rogers, left, listen as Rep. John James, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, speaks at an event at the General Motors Proving Ground Monday, July 27, 2026, in Milford, Mich. (Paul Sancya/AP Photo)

A week later, Trump-backed first-time candidate Anthony Constantino, a businessman and former boxer, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who had the backing of the state party, in the upstate New York race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, Trump couldn’t lose.

That’s because, besides backing Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette a few weeks earlier, he also gave a last-minute endorsement to state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who ended up winning the late June showdown in a landslide.

The president also enjoyed victory in Louisiana, where Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, was ousted as he sought renomination. Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow ended up winning the nomination in the runoff election.

And last month, Trump-backed Rep. Andy Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chair, won Arizona’s primary for governor in a landslide.

A divided federal appeals court cleared the way for Florida to enforce a Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed law restricting children from certain sexually explicit live performances, including drag performances the state argues are obscene for minors.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled Tuesday 8-5 that Orlando restaurant Hamburger Mary’s had not shown it was likely to succeed in its First and Fourteenth Amendment challenge to Florida’s Protection of Children Act.

The court vacated the preliminary injunction in full and sent the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida for further proceedings. The ruling clears the way for enforcement, though Hamburger Mary’s could still seek additional review.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier celebrated the decision in a post on X.

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«Huge victory for our team at the 11th Circuit! After 3 years of litigation, the full court affirmed the constitutionality of Florida’s ban on children attending sexualized drag shows,» Uthmeier wrote.

The law makes it a misdemeanor to «knowingly admit a child to an adult live performance,» according to the court’s opinion.

The law defines an «adult live performance» as a live show that «depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities … lewd conduct, or the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts» and that also predominantly appeals to a «prurient, shameful, or morbid interest,» is «patently offensive» for the age of the child present and, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for that child’s age.

Writing for the court, Judge Andrew Brasher called the law «a straightforward regulation of obscenity.»

«Preventing children from attending adult live performances obscene for them is rationally related to Florida’s interest in safeguarding the well-being of minors,» Brasher wrote.

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A drag performer in Miami. (Getty Images, File)

The majority rejected Hamburger Mary’s arguments that the terms «lewd» and «the age of the child present» made the law unconstitutionally vague or overly broad.

Brasher wrote that Florida Supreme Court precedent limits the meaning of «lewd» to sexual conduct. He also wrote that all three parts of the law’s obscenity test must be met before a performance is prohibited.

The majority also ruled that using an age-variable standard did not make the law unconstitutional on its face.

Eight judges agreed that Hamburger Mary’s was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its constitutional claims. Six judges joined Brasher’s opinion in full, while Judges Kevin Newsom and Britt Grant joined all but the section addressing universal injunctions.

Grant wrote separately that the court did not need to rule on the scope of the injunction after deciding that Hamburger Mary’s was unlikely to succeed on the merits.

Five judges dissented.

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A drag queen performs onstage in Miami. (Getty Images, File)

Judge Robin Rosenbaum argued that the law forces venues to guess which performances are suitable for children of different ages while exposing operators to criminal penalties, fines and the possible loss of a business license.

«Today our Court embraces mess-around-and-find-out (‘MAFO’) First Amendment jurisprudence,» Rosenbaum wrote.

She argued that the law could chill protected speech by forcing businesses to risk prosecution before learning how officials would apply it.

Rosenbaum also argued that the statute effectively imposes strict liability over a child’s age and could expose violators to jail, fines and the loss of a business license.

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People take in a drag performance in Orlando, Fla. (Getty Images, File)

She wrote that the law «wields a Titanic-sized iceberg of chilling power against protected speech.»

Judge Nancy Abudu filed a separate dissent focused on the law’s legislative history.

Abudu argued that comments from the law’s supporters, along with warnings from legislative staff, supported Hamburger Mary’s claim that the measure would chill protected drag performances.

The majority rejected that argument, writing that courts generally do not strike down an otherwise constitutional law based on an alleged improper legislative motive.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks with reporters at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, File)

The majority also wrote that nothing in the law targets performances simply because they feature drag.

Hamburger Mary’s filed the lawsuit in 2023 after Florida enacted the measure.

The restaurant said it had previously hosted Sunday drag performances advertised as family-friendly but canceled those shows and barred minors from its other performances because it feared enforcement.

A federal district judge initially issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law. A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit affirmed that decision before the full court agreed to rehear the case.

DeSantis’ and Uthmeier’s offices, as well as the ACLU of Florida, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Tensión en plena campaña electoral

Flávio Bolsonaro con el presidente de los Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, en la Casa Blanca.

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