Businessman Perry Johnson announces presidential candidacy for 2024

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) – Republican businessman Perry Johnson has announced his long-term run for president.

Johnson, who tried to run for Michigan governor last year but had filed thousands, according to the state’s elections bureau fraudulent nomination signatures, announced his candidacy for the White House on Thursday night to a group of supporters, his campaign said. Hours earlier he had spoken on the opening day of the yearbook Conservative Political Action Conference just outside of Washington, DC

Johnson didn’t directly mention his presidential campaign while speaking at the CPAC convention in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where a handful of other candidates and potential contenders, including former President Donald Trump, are scheduled to speak on Friday and Saturday.

Johnson spent earlier this year running an ad during the Super Bowl targeting voters in Iowa, the first state to vote on the GOP presidential field and announcing his plan to increase federal spending by April 2 each year % to truncate.

The businessman made a fortune founding Michigan-based Perry Johnson Registrars Inc., which certifies that companies meet industry standards. He was considered the 2022 GOP’s top nominee for Michigan governor before he and four other Republican hopefuls were disqualified for invalid signatures.

State elections officials said Johnson provided 13,800 valid signatures but discarded 9,393, including 6,983 they said were fraudulent. Johnson, who was willing to spend millions of dollars campaigning for governor, said his rights had been violated during the process.