Michigan families are getting hit with one electric rate hike after another. The two big utility companies behind those hikes — DTE Energy and Consumers Energy — have been handing money to John James, the congressman now running for governor.
That's the kind of deal that should make every Michigander ask a simple question: when the power companies come asking to raise your bill, whose side is John James on?
The money
Over his campaigns, James has taken about $48,529 from DTE Energy, CMS Energy (the parent company of Consumers Energy), and their employees. This year, Consumers Energy CEO Garrick Rochow personally chipped in $2,500, according to the American Journal News report that first flagged the donations.
This isn't a one-off. Both DTE and CMS Energy already sit near the top of James' donor list. His own campaign filings show CMS Energy and DTE Energy among his biggest funders — right alongside General Motors and the National Association of Realtors.
So when we say James works for big business instead of the people paying the bills, this is what we mean.
The rate hikes those companies are chasing
Here's what those same companies have been doing to Michigan families at the exact same time.
Consumers Energy asked state regulators in June 2026 for a $456 million electric rate increase — its largest request in more than 20 years. If approved, it would push residential electric rates up 9.8%. And it came less than three months after regulators had just signed off on a $276.6 million hike for the same company.
DTE Energy did nearly the same thing. In April 2026 it filed for a $474 million increase — about a 9.7% jump for home customers — only two months after regulators approved a $242.4 million hike. DTE tied the new request to a big data center deal, an offer Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called a "ransom note."
Nessel is now intervening in both cases to fight for ratepayers.
And it's not like these companies are hurting. DTE Energy reported nearly $1.5 billion in profit for 2025.
Record profits for the utility. Record rate requests for you. Campaign checks for John James.
What has James actually done for ratepayers?
Nothing that helps. If anything, his record in Congress makes your energy costs worse.
In 2025, James voted for Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" — the law that wipes out clean energy tax credits that were helping bring down power costs. Cutting those credits pushes energy bills in the wrong direction, right when families are already squeezed.
On the environment and energy more broadly, James has a 0% score from the League of Conservation Voters for 2025, and just a 7% lifetime score. That's about as close to "always votes with the polluters and the power companies" as a scorecard gets.
Put it together: he takes the utilities' money, he votes for policies that raise energy costs, and he's earned a zero from the people tracking whether he ever sides with consumers.
This fits a pattern
The utility money isn't the only time James' donors and his ethics have raised eyebrows.
He's already facing an ethics complaint for allegedly using his congressional office to boost his campaign for governor. He was hit with a separate complaint for failing to disclose 145 stock trades on time, a violation of the STOCK Act. Over and over, the story is the same: James looks out for insiders, donors, and himself.
Now he wants to be governor — the job that appoints the people who decide whether DTE and Consumers get to raise your rates. Michigan voters deserve to know whose checks he's been cashing before they hand him that power.
The Republican primary for governor is August 4.
Source
Donations first reported by American Journal News, July 8, 2026. Photo: AP.
