On Tuesday, Michigan voters will elect a new governor. As part of our election coverage we are bringing you interviews with the candidates. Donna Brandenburg is one of six people vying for Michigan's governorship.
Brandenburg describes herself as a Michigan-born lifelong entrepreneur, and a constitutional conservative who has spent decades building businesses across energy, real estate, farming, and technology.
Brandenburg serves as the chair of the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan and is running as the party's candidate for Michigan governor. She sat down with Stateside host April Baer to discuss why she's running.
April Baer: Why was running for governor the race that you were motivated to take on this year?
Brandenburg: Well, honestly, I was asked to run by some people that really wanted to fix what was happening in our government, which there's just a tremendous amount of maladministration, as well as other things that are really not serving the people. So they asked me and I said, why do you want me to run? I really don't like politics and I don't like politicians. I had great respect for our military and for people that have served this country, and I decided, you know, there's a lot of people that have put their lives on the line and really just decided to serve the country without any gain. So I agreed.
Baer: Donna, one thing that we hear a lot from voters is concern for the cost of living in Michigan right now. If elected, what is one thing you would do as governor to insulate Michiganders or to relieve the burden of rising costs to them nationally and internationally?
Brandenburg: Well, remember, all inflation is engineered, and so it is an engineering. All they got to do is flip a few pennies in one direction or another. So I'm a business owner and a CEO and I understand the game. I don't play the game, but I understand it.
First of all, we need to talk about the rampant spending that's going on and the fact that we are all under an 85% taxation in Michigan because we've got discretionary taxes and fees on top of property tax and income tax.
Baer: When you say 85%, can you break that down for us? I mean — looking at my tax return, 85% of my income is not in taxes.
Brandenburg: That's just your income tax that you're looking at and Social Security and such. So when you look at the other types of taxes that we have, the discretionary taxes like gas tax as well as the property tax and such, it's all unlawful if you stay with the Constitution.
I'm a constitutionalist, and that means going back to the organic constitution, because what they've done is they've overlaid what we were supposed to be with a corporate structure, and that's all for revenue generation.
So when you start looking at all the fees and such, license plate fees are absolutely a hit. They've turned into a tax because we have the right to travel without anything. That stops us from doing that — they have no right to charge us fees, licensure or anything on that. That's constitutional that we can travel. Where the taxation and the license plates come in, and the fees for driving on any level, would be for corporate or in commerce. That is called driving. There's a distinction in terms there.
But we also have all these discretionary taxes that we're paying. I would need to break this down and go through the long list of them, but there's a long list of them that are unconstitutional property taxes.
What the state of Michigan has done has converted all of our property titles to ownership of the state. They've titled themselves above Michigan property owners, and they titled themselves above the property owners, and then they had the audacity to collateralize our properties at a 21-to-1 ratio, which enables them to do unlimited borrowing with no consequences.
Income tax also, the way it's applied is unconstitutional. We should not be paying any federal income taxes at all because the state was supposed to pay through apportionment and no direct taxes.
Baer: Federal tariffs have hit Michigan particularly hard, in part because of how interconnected our industries are with our Canadian neighbors. How do you see the state being able to support Michigan businesses who are facing increased expenses right now?
Brandenburg: Well, if we can get rid of some of the regulation that we have going on, we have a system of regulatory capture, and this is a real problem. China has nationalized all the businesses. The United States of America has effectively nationalized business through regulatory capture. It's an extensive subject. I can talk about it at length. And once we get this taxation in and unlawful seizure of our properties as well as our money and our time, I think the people of Michigan would be so wealthy and the businesses would thrive.
We are No. 1 in the Midwest in energy costs. And the the cost of energy is absolutely killing business. So I think that once we get the proper protocols in place in the state, it's going to be fast and it's going to be shocking to the people of Michigan how quickly we can resolve some of these things that are taxing us right now.
Baer: The tariffs are being imposed at the federal level, however. Do you see Michigan being in a state to do anything about this? If elected as governor, would you be in a position to provide relief for businesses who are dealing with the uncertainty and the cost, in some cases, of tariffs?
Brandenburg: The 10th Amendment in Michigan gives the governor the ability to assert states' rights and just say, we're not going to play ball with this federally. This goes back to the power of the governor's seat — it actually has more power than the president's office in the United States — just people don't know how to use it. And so the governor can say, nope, we're not going to be enforcing these, these you know, mandates, laws or whatever. So we'll, we'll look at that. But it could open up some really interesting venues for commerce.
Baer: Data centers are a contentious topic in communities all across Michigan. How should Michigan's governor address backlash to data center development?
Brandenburg: I've got an axe to grind on this because of retribution to Donna Brandenburg for suing people and holding people accountable. I had 3 billion gallons of water drained out from underneath my barn, and it killed my well and 25 wells around us. So, I've got an axe to grind here, but we need to look at this in a balanced approach.
I think that things are not always what they appear to be. The data centers are obsolete the day they go online because technology changes so quickly. So what is going on here?
What I do know is that they are building power generators within all of these data centers. I think that this is going to be perhaps a way to decentralize the monopolies that they have on our energy.
Now with that said, there's no reason why they have to be in areas that are close to people and or take up power. They could have these things out in space, and we wouldn't even need to have the have the data centers at all, but they're doing it.
The water argument kind of fails, though, in a way, because they there's more leaks than our municipal water systems by an exponential amount than what the data centers allegedly would take. But I don't think we need to take any of it. I's really being engineered in poorly. I own a tech company, not a data center company, but a tech company. We do programming and systems administration and such, but they don't need to be doing it the way that they're doing it right now.
Baer: Many Michiganders have experienced their health care premiums rising drastically in price in the past year. Is there a piece of legislation that you would either propose or that you would support to make health care more affordable in Michigan?
Brandenburg: What I really believe in is that people need to be involved in this, and so what I'd like to do is open this up for comments for we, the people. I was on an interview with Dave Bondy recently, and he put something out that said: What would you like me to ask all governor candidates questions? Over 800 comments came in, and I downloaded them all and I did an analysis and created a report, as well as putting in the law and how to address this. So when we look at doing any of these issues, especially health care — I expect to listen to we, the people, and then find the way to take their instruction and make it happen.
There are great ways of addressing this. People need to be in charge of their own health care. They need to be able to explore any option they want. The government has no place in this whatsoever. I think if we look at the monopolies and the corporations and enforce antitrust — we're going to see competition, which will bring the bring the cost down very quickly. I also believe that we need to have doctors in communities. I saw a model years ago where $500 would buy health care for a person, unlimited health care, but the person didn't have a broader knowledge of how to financially make this work. So it didn't survive the way it should have, but it can.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
