John James wants to be Michigan's next governor. An analysis by American Journal News counts more than $1.2 million over his political career from people linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
The analysis covers his whole political career: his two failed U.S. Senate runs in 2018 and 2020, his two House wins in 2022 and 2024, and his race for governor this year.
The money came from 39 people. Twenty-six of them are named in the Justice Department's files on its years-long investigation of Epstein.
When James had a chance to help force those files into the open, he didn't take it.
The donors
Some of the biggest names on the list appear in the Epstein files hundreds of times. Here is what American Journal News found, and what federal records show:
- Thomas Peterffy, a Florida billionaire, is James's biggest Epstein-linked donor. According to American Journal News he has given more than $519,000. Federal Election Commission records show about $9,100 of that going to James's own federal campaigns; the analysis doesn't say where the rest went. Peterffy and Epstein were both involved in Palm Beach real estate.
- Marc Rowan, the CEO of the private equity giant Apollo, appears in the files 389 times. He gave James $8,500. Federal Election Commission records show $5,600 to James's 2020 Senate campaign and $2,900 to his first House campaign in 2022.
- Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics heir, appears in the files 456 times. American Journal News counts $3,300 from him. FEC records show that $3,300 reaching James's House campaign on October 16, 2024, three weeks before that year's election, as its share of a $50,000 check Lauder gave that day to Grow the Majority, a joint fundraising committee.
- Charles Schwab, the brokerage founder, appears in the files 143 times. American Journal News counts $14,900 from him.
One honest caution, which American Journal News prints too: a name showing up in the files does not by itself mean that person did anything illegal. Plenty of rich and powerful people crossed paths with Epstein.
But a candidate who takes this much money from that circle owes voters a clear answer about whose side he's on. On the Epstein files, James's record gives that answer.
When it counted, James didn't sign
In 2025, a bipartisan group in the House tried to force a vote on making the Epstein files public. The tool was a discharge petition. It needed 218 signatures to force a vote that House Republican leaders weren't scheduling.
Only four Republicans signed it. John James was not one of them. His name is not on the list.
He came around only after the outcome was settled. Once President Trump endorsed the effort, the bill came to the floor, and on November 18, 2025, James voted yes, along with nearly everyone else in the House. The final tally was 427 to 1.
A yes vote on a bill that is going to pass 427 to 1 costs nothing. Signing the petition while party leaders were still blocking it would have cost something, and James didn't do it.
He's not the only one
This is a pattern we have documented across the Republican ticket. Iowa's Ashley Hinson refused to sign the same petition while billionaires named in the files wrote her checks. Alaska's Dan Sullivan voted to keep the files sealed, then took money from two men named in them. And Maine's Susan Collins has a super PAC that took $2 million from a billionaire named in the files.
It is also not the first time James's money has raised questions in this race. His party has spent heavily on him too: we reported that he took $1.8 million in DeVos-funded ads from the Michigan Republican Party, well past the $750,000 cap state law puts on what a party can give a candidate for governor.
Why it matters to Michigan
Epstein's victims were girls and young women. For years, the people around him had money and connections that kept the full story buried. Releasing the files was about whether powerful people get protected.
James is asking Michiganders to make him the most powerful official in their state. His opponent is Democrat Jocelyn Benson, who leads in most polls. Michigan voters can fairly ask why so many of the people in Epstein's orbit have spent so much helping John James win, and why he stayed off the petition until Trump gave the go-ahead.
What the records show
American Journal News counts more than $1.2 million over John James's career from 39 people linked to Jeffrey Epstein, 26 of whom are named in the Justice Department's Epstein files, including Marc Rowan, Ronald Lauder and Charles Schwab. In Congress he refused to sign the discharge petition that would have forced those files into the open. He voted to release them only after President Trump endorsed it and the vote was no longer in doubt.
Source
John James took $1.2 million from Epstein-linked donors — American Journal News
