The Michigan Secretary of State has released the initial list of Republican and Democratic candidates who will appear on the March 8 presidential primary ballot.
The Republicans:
- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush
- Dr. Ben Carson
- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas
- Carly Fiorina
- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
- Ohio Gov. John Kasich
- Former New York Gov. George Pataki
- U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky
- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida
- Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania
- Donald Trump.
The Democrats:
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
- U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont
- Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley
Secretary of State Ruth Johnson compiled the list. State law calls for it be made up of people “generally advocated by the national news media to be potential presidential candidates.”
But this isn’t the end of deciding who will appear on the ballot.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel and Michigan Democratic Party Chair Brandon Dillon have until Tuesday to add (but may not remove) names.
Candidates who want to appear can also submit nominating petitions no later than Dec. 11. It takes 10,577 signatures of registered voters to qualify for the GOP ballot; 12,823 to qualify for the Democratic ballot. That represents .5 percent of the votes for the Republican and Democratic candidates, respectively, in 2012.
With three and a half months to go, there’s no way of knowing which candidates will still be in the race by the time the Michigan primary rolls around. Dec. 11 is also the deadline for candidates to remove their names from the primary ballot.
