John James won Michigan's Republican primary for governor on Aug. 4. For most of the two years before that, when anyone asked him about abortion, he had a comfortable answer ready: Michigan already decided this. It's in the constitution. Nothing to see here.

Then a voter at a late-July rally pushed him on it, and someone was recording.

Audio obtained by the Daily Beast — and reported by the Michigan Independent — captures the exchange. A supporter tells James: "I'm a little disappointed that you once called abortion genocide, but now you say it's kind of settled for Michigan."

James replies: "I've never said it was settled."

"Oh really?" the voter says. "So will you do something to get Proposal 3 repealed once you're governor?"

James answers:

"I'm going to do everything to get the most conservative, most pro-life bill passed through the House and Senate that I possibly can."

(The Michigan Independent notes it has not independently verified the Daily Beast's audio.)

He absolutely said it was settled

The "I've never said it was settled" part is the piece that doesn't survive contact with the record.

At a Detroit TV roundtable in 2024, James said this:

"I think people in the state of Michigan already decided that no party, no person, no president would decide that for Michigan, and Prop 3 passed in 2022. And so despite the fearmongering that you hear on the left, the fact of the matter is that abortion is enshrined in our constitution. If you're a woman in this state, you can have an abortion. In fact, nationwide abortions have actually increased since Roe v. Wade was overturned. There's nothing that can be done legislatively at the federal level, and even if it could, it has no chance of passing."

Read that next to the rally tape. In 2024: abortion is enshrined in our constitution, there's nothing that can be done. In July 2026, to a room of primary voters: I'm going to do everything to get the most conservative, most pro-life bill passed that I possibly can.

He was not misremembering. NOTUS wrote up the same reversal under the headline "John James Once Compared Abortion to 'Genocide.' Now He Says the Issue Is 'Decided.'" The shift was obvious enough to be a story on its own — before the tape showed him shifting back.

What Proposal 3 actually is

In November 2022, a majority of Michigan voters passed Proposal 3, a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion. It was a direct response to the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade that June.

That is the thing the voter asked James to repeal, and the thing James answered by promising the most conservative bill he could get through the legislature.

Michiganders didn't hand this to a legislature. They voted on it themselves, at the ballot box, and put it in the constitution specifically so a future governor couldn't undo it with a bill.

This is the position he held before he softened it

The 2024 "it's settled" version was the new one. James's actual record on abortion is long, consistent, and entirely on the public file:

• He declared himself "100% Pro-Life" with the "exclusive endorsement of Right to Life."
• At a 2018 campaign event he compared abortion to "genocide" — "standing by and letting this genocide continue."
• He said in 2018 he was "against Roe v. Wade" and that "life begins at conception".
• He attacked a primary opponent for being open to confirming "pro-choice judges".
• He praised Trump for "pulling funding for Planned Parenthood".
• On the day Roe was overturned, he thanked Michigan Right to Life for its support.

And once he got to Congress, he voted like it. In 2023 he voted for an FDA funding bill whose Section 761 would have wiped out the FDA's decision loosening restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone — the pill used in most U.S. abortions, including by mail.

That's not a man who thinks the question is closed. That's a man who spent a general-election cycle saying it was closed because saying so was useful.

The two-audience problem

There's a name for what the tape captures, and it isn't a gaffe. It's a candidate running two messages at once.

To the general public, on television: Prop 3 passed, abortion is in the constitution, the left is fearmongering. That version is aimed at the majority of Michigan voters who put Prop 3 in the constitution in the first place — including a lot of people who don't want a governor relitigating it.

To primary voters at a rally: I never said it was settled, and I'll pass the most conservative bill I can. That version is aimed at the people who noticed him going quiet and wanted to know if he'd gone soft.

The only reason we know about the second version is that somebody hit record.

This is not the first time James has said something to a friendly crowd that doesn't hold up. He also told a Trump rally the president had won Michigan "three times" — Trump lost Michigan in 2020 by more than 154,000 votes.

What's actually at stake in November

James is an Army veteran serving his second term representing Michigan's 10th District. He won the Aug. 4 primary with just over 50% of the vote, beating businessman Perry Johnson and two others, with Trump's endorsement.

He faces Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who won the Democratic primary with roughly 83%. Benson has said a miscarriage she experienced deepened her focus on reproductive care access — she told the Associated Press in May 2025 it "opened my eyes to the need to not just protect reproductive freedom and rights, but actually make sure they're real."

So Michigan voters have a clear choice, and now they have James on tape describing his own half of it.

His campaign did not respond to the Michigan Independent's request for comment on his abortion position or on whether he'd pursue anti-abortion legislation as governor.

If James believes what he told the TV roundtable — that Michigan settled this and there's nothing to be done — he can say so again now, in public, on the record, with the tape out. If he believes what he told the rally, Michigan voters deserve to hear that version in a general election, not just in a room where he thought only supporters were listening.

Source

John James to pursue anti-abortion legislation if elected, Daily Beast audio reveals — Alyssa Burr, The Michigan Independent, August 10, 2026. Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sancya.