Let's Meet Perry Johnson — GOP Candidate for President in 2024

Michigan businessman and politician Perry Johnson is one of a growing number of Republican candidates who are running for U.S. President in 2024. Johnson formerly announced his bid for president in March with a political ad in the Super Bowl.

Leading up to the U.S. presidential race in 2024, many people have questions about the candidates. Let's get to know Perry Johnson.

Johnson is a Detroit-area businessman who built his wealth with quality control businesses. He calls himself the “Quality Guru.” His company, Perry Johnson Registrars, has been instrumental in establishing quality control standards in various industries, such as the automotive industry. He has authored a number of ISO standards as well as the book “ISO 9000: Meeting the International Standards.”

“I’ve always been a numbers guy, and I used that expertise to start Perry Johnson Registrars, a company that put into place quality controls on American auto parts, which in turn, guaranteed quality American automobiles,” Johnson says on his campaign website.

“Following those successes, we implemented the same model for items used in everyday life. We’ve started more than 80 companies worldwide that provide quality standards in the items we use every single day, including food, medical devices and airplanes,” Perry states on the site.

Johnson entered the political area in 2022 in a failed attempt to run for Michigan governor. He also kicked off that campaign for Michigan governor with a commercial in the 2022 Super Bowl.

"Can you really think of a profession more desperately in need of quality than government?" Johnson says in his campaign ad for governor. "I brought quality to 61 countries. Let's do it here at home.”

However, Johnson’s name never appeared on the ballot in the August 2022 primary. The Michigan elections bureau found that he didn’t have enough valid nomination signatures to qualify, the Associated Press reported.

Of the 15,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot, only 13,800 signatures Johnson turned in were valid. The election committee tossed 9,393 signatures, including 6,983 that were deemed to be fraudulent, the AP reported.

Johnson was one of five Republican candidates for Michigan governor who failed to file enough valid signatures to get on the ballot. He filed but lost a lawsuit against the decision, saying his rights were violated during the process, AP reports.

On his campaign website, Johnson states that he “proudly” supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 and “could very easily support him in 2024,” even though the two candidates are now opponents.

Johnson’s campaign focuses on his “Two Cents to Save America” plan to cut federal discretionary spending. The plan proposes that cutting two cents off every dollar of discretionary spending would end inflation and solve the debt crisis.

During his appearance at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. in March, Johnson told the crowd that he was pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-family, pro-freedom, and anti-China.

Many media outlets refer to Johnson as a “long-shot” candidate. ABC News reports that Johnson took third in CPAC’s straw poll for presidential picks with about 5 percent of the vote.