Detroit’s top police officer, James Craig, is expected to announce his retirement today to launch his gubernatorial challenge against Michigan’s Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The Democrat has been under fire for her controversial Covid policies especially after news broke she used a private jet to fly to Florida while constituents were suffering.

Craig has been praised by Republicans for defending the Second Amendment and his major efforts to maintain peace in Detroit as many Democrat-led cities have seen major spikes in violent crime.

Fox News reports:

Detroit Police Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood confirmed to Fox News that Craig will announce his retirement Monday, but referred questions about a possible statewide race to Craig himself.

Ralph Godbee, the former chief of the Detroit police, told Fox 2 Detroit that Craig’s public safety leadership would transition well to politics.

“For a chief of police, just by the nature of what chiefs deal with,” he said. “The fact that in a major city, you are on television quite frequently making announcements good bad or indifferent. (He would have) the name recognition, the comfortability and also the credibility.”

Craig, during his interview on Fox News, was critical of individuals he says are influential — namely LeBron James and Rep. Maxine Waters — for their “toxic words that do nothing but undermine” the work that most police officers do. He made it clear that he is not a police apologist, and holds each individual officer to a high standard.

Craig has been a fierce defender of good policing after a rise in the “Defund the Police” movement. “The vast majority of our men and women do it right, he said.