By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-987347.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Former state board of education president Clark Durant will formally launch his campaign for Michigan's Republican U.S. Senate nomination Friday in Detroit. The winner of the GOP primary will face Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow on the November 2012 ballot. Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta reports.
Durant has been accepting endorsements and donations for weeks. His formal entry into the race precedes a big Republican political conference this weekend on Mackinac Island. Durant says his is an insurgent candidacy that takes on the establishment in Washington and his own political party.
"I've had the slings and the arrows slung at me and I will continue to go into those battles for the people who don't have a voice, and the taxpayers of this state and this country don't have a voice," he says.
The race for the GOP nomination is widely seen as mostly between Durant and former Congressman Pete Hoekstra - who has the backing of Governor Rick Snyder, and most GOP members of the state's congressional delegation. It has sparked an intra-party rivalry. Durant is backed by billionaire GOP activist Betsy DeVos, and former Senator Spence Abraham.