Perry Johnson presidential campaign, 2024

2024 Presidential Election Date: November 5, 2024

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Perry Johnson ended his presidential campaign on October 20, 2023.

“	I'm a guy that started with nothing, and ended up with the most perfect life on the planet. I lived the American dream, and I want to keep that American dream alive. To do that, obviously, we need to change things.	”
—Perry Johnson (March 2023)

Perry Johnson (R) was a businessman and author. He officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election on March 2, 2023. Johnson suspended his campaign on October 20, 2023.

Johnson focused his campaign on government spending, highlighting his background in business. Johnson said he would reduce the budget by 2% each year to reduce inflation and the deficit. He also said, "I am pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-family, pro-freedom, pro-American worker. I am anti-woke. I am anti-China. I really do question whether or not we have to send over $100 billion over to the Ukraine when we're going broke here."

Biography

Johnson was born in Dolton, Illinois. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Johnson started Perry Johnson, Inc., in 1983, and Perry Johnson Registrars, Inc., in 1994. Both companies dealt with providing information about and certifying industry quality standards. According to the Perry Johnson Foundation website, Johnson is the founder and owner of over 70 companies operating both within and outside of the United States.

At the time he announced his presidential candidacy, Johnson had not previously held elected office. He attempted to run for governor of Michigan in 2022, but was unable to qualify for the ballot.

Johnson authored several books, including ISO 9000: Meeting the International Standards and Two Cents To Save America.

Campaign finance

See also: Presidential election campaign finance, 2024

The following chart displays noteworthy Republican primary candidates' overall fundraising through the October 2023 quarterly campaign finance reports. Note that the chart displays fundraising figures for candidates who had declared before the most recent reporting deadline. It only displays data for principal campaign committees, not candidate-affiliated PACs. The charts below include campaign finance reports beginning at the point the FEC starts classifying the committee as a presidential candidate's principal campaign finance committee.

Receipts is a broad term referring to all money that goes into a campaign account, including contributions by individuals, dividends or interest on loans or investments made by the campaign, transfers of money from other political committees, and offsets to a campaign's expenditures in the form of rebates or refunds. Contributions reflect individual donations to a campaign. Disbursements is a term for campaign spending.

Primary debate participation

See also: Republican presidential primary debates, 2024

Johnson did not participated in any Republican presidential primary debates.

Campaign advertisements

This section includes a selection of up to three campaign advertisements supporting this candidate and up to three campaign advertisements opposing this candidate, as well as links to other ads.

Support

July 27, 2023

June 1, 2023

March 27, 2023

Click here to view links to more advertisements supporting Johnson

• July 27, 2023 - "Every 30s"
• June 1, 2023 - "Perry Johnson for President: The Quality Guru"
• March 27, 2023 - "Perry Johnson, Walking in Iowa"
• March 24, 2023 - "Perry Johnson, Perry Who?"
• March 21, 2023 - "Pardon"
• March 20, 2023 - "Perry Who?"

Campaign themes

Website

Johnson listed the following policy positions on his campaign website as of August 7, 2023.

“

TWO-CENTS PLAN America is going down a path of destruction by debt. We are drowning in it, spending more than we have, and making decisions that would bankrupt any family. Joe Biden isn’t even trying, sending Congress a “budget” with a $1.2 TRILLION dollar deficit in 2023. His plan will balloon our debt to $50 trillion! The last time we had a balanced budget was in 1999. Since that time we have added over $25 trillion dollars in new debt. We have accumulated five times as much debt in the last 23 years as we did in three previous 223 years of our nation’s history. I have a plan to fix this out of control spending once and for all. It’s called the “Two Cents Plan” and it does just what it sounds like – it asks the federal government to live with two cents less per dollar spent than it would have. We will cut two cents of every dollar in federal discretionary spending every year. Who will miss two cents? It sounds small doesn’t it? Sounds pretty reasonable and possible? Well that’s because it is. It’s also necessary. We need the government to go on a little bit of a diet, and this is the most responsible and effective way of doing it. If we spend just two cents less, we can balance the budget and end inflation. I’ve spent a lot of time doing my own finances and advising companies around the world how to put out a quality product and how to succeed — I can tell you the path we are on now is certain failure and bankruptcy. That’s not just my Two Cents. It’s a fact. INFLATION Inflation is a tax felt by the poor and middle class. It’s just that simple. People will tell you it’s complicated — it’s not. The Government is the only entity that can print money. Joe Biden has created a record amount of cash in our money supply without any increase in goods. Democrats in Washington single-handedly created the inflation crisis in America. And what does that mean for you? Your money doesn’t go as far as it did before. Your gas was $2 a gallon, then it was $4. Your eggs were $2 a dozen, then they were $5. Housing, energy, groceries – all out of control. The list of things you buy and consume goes on and on, but the result is the same: You spend more to get the same things, and you have to make due with less because of it. The elites and the policy makers aren’t impacted as much — heck, the old joke was the politicians don’t even know how much the milk and eggs cost, and it’s probably true. What is for sure true is that they don’t seem to care. As President, I would discourage, disincentive, and end policies which contribute to inflation, including spending money we don’t have. I would emphasize supply-side policies that will ensure adequate production of goods without increasing prices. For an economy to work properly, We need inflation at a manageable, low level. The ideal mark should be around two percent. But in the fall of 2022, we had reached eight percent, the highest rate in over 40 years. Some would even say that number is masked by the government bean counters and what they choose to exclude. The worst news — it was preventable. Your government did this to you. Out of control spending on massive “Covid relief” programs, foreign interventions and runaway social programs put us in this situation. We had to borrow and borrow and borrow. The federal reserve had to rev up the printing press to keep us afloat. But you can’t get away with that forever. There are consequences. Consequences YOU have to bear in a double whammy — first you pay the massive increases in prices, then you pay the cost for the federal reserve raising interest rates to slow down the economy. The Government is killing the American middle class and hurting families. My Two-Cents Plan will put us back on track. ENERGY If we want to fix our country and win the 21st Century the way we did the 20th, we must promote domestic energy production and ensure that the US leads the way in promoting energy, clean reforms, and reducing emissions. Climate extremists wish to see us immediately end our dependence on fossil fuels, but this is unrealistic and unwise. I differ strongly from the Biden Administration on that position. I would repeal Biden’s climate extremist executive orders immediately upon becoming President, while working with lawmakers and industry leaders to ensure we are on the forefront of the rapidly evolving renewable resource industry. I would finish the keystone pipeline to ensure a better domestic supply. I would also eliminate the backlog and red tape for mining, shale production, and natural gas export facilities. With our natural resources, we should be energy independent and a massive exporter of energy, but the government gets in the way. It is far cleaner and more environmentally friendly for the United States to refine oil than any other country in the world. Especially China and Russia. We must work WITH industry rather than dictating to them and stifling their innovation. Capitalism has always produced the best innovations. Our air and water are the cleanest they have ever been. We do not need new, draconian regulations that will remove the incentive to produce and innovate. One area I will make a focus where others have not – I want to revive our dormant nuclear energy capabilities. Other nations around the world are beating the pants off of us with development of nuclear options, and for no reason other than scare tactics from a generation ago. BORDER SECURITY The crisis at our southern border has spiraled out of control. A country that cannot control its own border is not a country. Under Joe Biden’s administration, the United States witnessed a record number of migrant encounters at the border. This is not surprising given Biden’s reversal of many Trump-era border policies, which opened the floodgates and incentivized illegal immigration instead of curbing it. I admire many of Trump’s policies, but the reality is that he never built the wall. My first priority as President will be building the wall. Since President Biden took office and rolled back our border security, there have been 4.5 million migrant encounters at the border, along with 1.2 million known “gotaways” who eluded them. In just the last month of 2022, there were over 250,000 encounters, up 40 percent from 2021. My border policy will have three main focuses: Tight and non-porous border security Strict policies to cease and desist illegal immigration, with a zero-tolerance policy toward those who are discovered to have immigrated illegally Create an easier pathway to citizenship for vetted immigrants (based on economic, social, and cultural needs of our nation at a given time) Upon taking office I will do the following: Build the wall. My Two-Cents Plan will cut unnecessary government spending. Once it has been implemented, it will free up funding for the border wall, among other priorities. Implement a zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigration. Biden’s border crisis persists in part due to his lackadaisical approach to border security. Under my administration, anyone found to have illegally immigrated will be sent to their country of origin and not allowed reentry. Create a pathway for citizenship through a strict vetting process and worker visas. I do not deny that immigrants enrich our nation in many ways, but we must be allowed to retain our sovereignty as a nation and admit only those we deem a fit for our country and its needs at a given time. Redirect funds saved by restricting immigration. Each illegal immigrant costs taxpayers more than $9,000 per year. By limiting border crossings we are not only protecting our citizens, but conserving precious taxpayer dollars. We could use that additional funding to: Hire 300,000 new teachers or school security personnel Give every working family a grocery voucher Hire 300,000 new police officers to combat rising crime rates FENTANYL CRISIS A common sense approach to handling the fentanyl crisis in America Fentanyl is a massive problem and danger to our society and we must take action. Fentanyl is 50-times stronger than heroin and 100-times stronger than morphine. It is a major contributor to fatal overdoses in the country. More than 150 people die from overdoses related to synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, every day. One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. The lethal dose can be as low as 2 mg. This is a problem that spans multiple policy fronts – our border with Mexico, funding and money laundering by China, and street and gang crimes in our cities. There is no easy answer, but sometimes it seems we aren’t even trying. As President, I would immediately add equipment and manpower at the border to stop the flow of fentanyl into the country. Very little fentanyl is produced domestically, instead it is being produced abroad and smuggled in through the Mexican border. With more than 90% of fentanyl coming from precursor drugs in China, we must also crack down on the source. China is one of our greatest threats and we need to start acting like it. Drugs coming out of China are killing Americans and I will be unafraid to stand up to China as President. I would also task federal law enforcement agencies to stop at nothing to investigate, arrest and prosecute high level dealers and drug lords operating within the United States. They are killing mothers, fathers, sons and daughters on a daily basis. We must learn from the past also. Our policy of imposing draconian sentences on low-level dealers and users has not been effective. We must focus on going after the major player SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE There may be no place where politicians of BOTH parties lie to you more than Social Security and Medicare. They will look you straight in the face and say they are going to “protect” these programs. But if their plans leaves them exactly as they are now, they are not protecting anything other than their jobs. You see, much like our overall spending and budget, we have a massive problem in the Social Security and Medicare systems. Both are spending vast sums more than will ever come in, and both were designed generations ago, when our work-life and healthcare systems and costs were very different. We must start NOW to stabilize these programs by incentivizing work and immigration, and by recognizing the longevity of our younger population. No one below the age of 40 thinks they’ll ever see these programs — and they’re right if we don’t work together and do something to save them right now. The first problem is, when we started the programs, once you reached 65, you could expect to live another 13 years on average. That number is now 22 years. That’s a lot more social security to pay out, and health care bills to cover for Medicare. Now, factor in the massive increase In the cost of healthcare, and you can see why the system can’t continue as is. The problem is also basic math. We have more people receiving checks today and fewer people in the labor and workforce.That’s why our economic and immigration policies are the key to making sure Social Security and Medicare work. If our economy is running at full speed, and we increase our supply of labor and people paying INTO the systems, there is more money available for those receiving benefits. It’s a win/win situation — we get a great economy, a continued land of the free for immigrants, AND our kids get to have social security and Medicare. SIMPLIFYING THE TAX CODE The IRS is too big. The tax code is a horrendous mess of 80,000 plus pages that no one understands. The government takes too much of your money, and it does it in the most bizarre way possible. The dirty little secret of Washington and taxation is that the tax code does in fact benefit the wealthy and corporations, but not in the way most people think. It’s not that their tax rate is low — it’s not. It’s that every tax break in the code was put in there by some lobbyist for some special interest. Who is lobbying for you? Who is looking out for YOUR interest? That’s what I want to do as President. I want to reduce taxes, simplify the system, and fix this mess. We need to cut rates across the board, eliminate special deductions, and reduce the number of tax brackets. When Ronald Reagan ran against Jimmy Carter in 1980, he won by making the high inflation, rising interest rates, energy insecurity and a crazy tax system his main messages. Sound familiar? After Reagan took office he cut taxes across the board and helped jump start a failing economy. That’s what I want to do, but even more. I will reduce the current tax brackets from seven to two. Currently Americans pay at the rates of 37, 35, 32, 24, 22, 12 and 10 percent. I propose two new brackets of 28 and 15 percent. People at all income levels will benefit and be incentivized to work more. NATIONAL SECURITY “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” That’s a quote from former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. He’s dead on. We cannot be a great nation with our current spending, debt and economy. Great nations don’t fall by military force as often as they fall under the weight of their own massive government spending and programs. The single most important and constitutional function of government is to provide for the defense of its people. That’s why it would be a main focus of mine as President. But national Defense should not have an unlimited credit line or a blank check. Did you know that the Pentagon has failed five audits in a row and that it cannot account for more than 30 percent of its spending? The possibilities of overpaying, abuse and fraud are nearly endless in an $800 billion dollar a year “business” conducted all over the world. We have deep concerns on the world stage and frankly we have been distracted, and we are not paying enough attention to the main threat to our nation in the 21st century – China. We have spent two decades and trillions of dollars fighting endless Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond, with no reason, no exit strategy and nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, China is using its resources to pirate our intellectual property, dump cheap goods, and buy up our farmland at an alarming pace. IN just the last decade, China acquired over 300,000 new acres of farmland in the US, along with strategic properties near military installations. Why is this allowed? They acquired the United States largest producer of pork, Smithfield Foods, and also the company that provides logistics and transportation to the pork industry. Prices are reeling. And what are we doing? We are sending nearly $75 million every single day to China in INTEREST ALONE. OUR MONEY is funding their military build up and fentanyl production because D.C. can’t control spending. Paying attention yet? Your government isn’t and I want to change that. I will strengthen our defense by cutting waste, improving our audits and controls and streamlining our processes so we can do more with 98 percent of the defense budget than we ever did before with 100 percent. EDUCATION If National Defense is the one thing that the federal government can and must do for us, Education may be its polar opposite — it has ALWAYS done better locally. In fact, the bloated and useless Department of Education has never educated a single child in America — not one. What they do instead with their massive $100 billion dollar budget is impose rules, mess up curriculum, and generally get in the way of educating our children. It needs to stop, and now. I propose ending the Department of Education and getting the money back to the schools instead of to the bureaucrats. Money should follow students so parents have absolute control over who is educating their children. No child should be stuck in a failing or activist school. The federal dollars spent on primary and secondary education amounts to less than 8 percent of the total spent on our children. I propose that we take that money, block-grant it to the states to use how they need in their schools, and then shutter the massive building in DC that houses the thousands of bureaucrats who have made our education both worse and more expensive. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE & FBI The corruption and politicization of the Department of Justice and the FBI has reached unthinkable levels. As President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will eliminate the FBI entirely and lead a massive overhaul at the Department of Justice. The current culture of corruption at the DOJ is alarming and must be addressed immediately. The examples of this corruption are numerous and damning. The Russian Hoax completely undermined a sitting United States President for the entirety of his term. It also clearly affected both the 2018 and 2020 elections and cost Republicans multiple elections. The Durham report showed a massive and coordinated effort of senior FBI officials to defraud the American public. The organization’s relentless and unprecedented persecution of Donald Trump while at the same time, declining to prosecute Hillary Clinton after she deleted tens of thousands of emails from a private server, which she also destroyed, and failed to pursue an investigation into criminal evidence found on Hunter Biden’s laptop. The briefing of United States Senators that occurred in which FBI agents lied about the Hunter Biden Laptop being Russian disinformation. The clear evidence and far left investigators targeting Christians and other religious institutions and organizations. And these are just scratching the surface. Enough is enough. We are going to replace the DOJ’s culture of corruption with a culture of accountability and integrity back into government. Upon taking office I will do the following: I will direct the Attorney General to eliminate the FBI in its entirety. We have too many federal agents to begin and far too much corruption in the investigatory practices. In my experience in bringing quality to business, I’ve learned that some things can be fixed and some things are best to be shuttered. The culture and practices of the FBI are too broken to be fixed. Implement a zero-tolerance policy for religious discrimination and anti-Christian investigatory practices. Appoint an Attorney General who will not only implement my Two-Cents plan to cut two percent of discretionary spending at the DOJ every year, but also appoint special counsel to lead an investigation into partisanship running rampant in the Department. Any employee at the DOJ found to have partisan bias in their investigations will be terminated immediately. I will audit and evaluate the mission and practices of each of the other law enforcement arms of the DOJ, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Marshalls and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. I will direct all federal law enforcement interviews and interrogations to be recorded to ensure the constitutional rights of Americans are protected.

”

Campaign logo and slogan

See also: Presidential campaign logos and slogans, 2024

The table below displays this candidate's campaign logo and slogan. Click here to view more campaign logos and slogans in the 2024 presidential race.

2024 Republican presidential candidate logos
Candidate	Logo	Slogan
Perry Johnson		Two Cents to Save America

Campaign staff

See also: Perry Johnson presidential campaign staff, 2024, Presidential election key staffers, 2024, and Presidential election campaign managers, 2024

The table below shows a partial list of national campaign staff members, including the campaign manager, senior advisors, political directors, communications directors, field directors, and the national press secretary. They are presented alongside their positions in the campaign, their most recent positions prior to the campaign, and their Twitter handles. To recommend additions, please email us at editor@ballotpedia.org.

See also: Presidential election campaign managers and key staffers, 2024

Perry Johnson presidential campaign national staff, 2024
Staff	Position	Prior experience	Twitter handle
Paul Cordes	Campaign manager	Chief of staff, Michigan Republican Party	@ paulcordes

Social media and campaign website

Campaign website

• Perry Johnson's campaign website

Social media accounts

• Perry Johnson on Facebook
• Perry Johnson on Twitter
• Perry Johnson on YouTube

Timeline of campaign activity

See also: Editorial approach to story selection for presidential election news events

The following section provides a timeline of Johnson's campaign activity from March to October 2023. The entries are sorted by month in reverse chronological order.

2023

October 2023 (click to expand)

• October 20, 2023: Johnson suspended his campaign. In a statement, Johnson said, "The Two Cents Plan is at its core, a plan to make life affordable for Americans again. I believe in it now more than ever and hope Washington, D.C. starts to take spending and inflation seriously, before the crushing weight of our national debt leads to economic catastrophe. The American people deserve so much better than what career politicians in D.C. are giving them. [...] I've said it before and I'll say it again, the people should decide the next president of the United States, not the head of the RNC and her cronies. With no opportunity to share my vision on the debate stage, I have decided at this time, suspending my campaign is the right thing to do."
• October 15, 2023: The October quarterly Federal Election Commission campaign finance reporting deadline passed. Johnson raised $6 million and spent $7 million, with $1 million in cash on hand as of September 30.
• October 13, 2023: Johnson spoke at the New Hampshire Republican Party's First in the Nation Leadership Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire. Click here to view his remarks.
• October 8, 2023: Johnson issued a statement in response to Hamas' military attacks against Israel, and Israel's subsequent declaration of war. Johnson said, "Joe Biden’s weak leadership and disastrous foreign policy have emboldened evil doers around the world. The attacks by Hamas are horrific and America must not waiver [sic] in our support for Israel. We need real leadership back in the White House now more than ever."

September 2023 (click to expand)

• September 16, 2023: Johnson spoke at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Town Hall in Des Moines, Iowa. Click here to view his remarks.

August 2023 (click to expand)

• August 22, 2023: The Republican National Committee said Johnson had not met the criteria to qualify for the first Republican primary debate. Johnson released a statement saying he planned to sue the committee and, "The corrupt and rigged RNC debate process has been a trainwreck from the beginning. Our campaign hit every metric put forward by the RNC and we have qualified for the debate."
• August 18, 2023:
  • Johnson said he had met the polling and fundraising thresholds necessary to participate in the first Republican primary debate.
  • Johnson participated in Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' (R) Fair-Side Chats event. click here to view the discussion.
• August 12, 2023: Johnson held a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, featuring a concert from the band Big and Rich.
• August 11, 2023: Johnson spoke at the Des Moines Register's Political Soapbox event at the Iowa State Fair. Click here for a video of his remarks.
• August 6, 2023: Johnson spoke at Rep. Ashley Hinson's (R-Iowa) BBQ Bash event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
• August 5, 2023: Johnson announced he had met the fundraising threshold necessary to participate in the first Republican primary debate.

March 2023 (click to expand)

• March 2, 2023: Johnson declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

See also

• Republican presidential nomination, 2024
• Presidential candidates, 2024
• Presidential election endorsements, 2024
• Prediction markets in the 2024 presidential election
• Presidential candidate campaign travel, 2024
• Republican presidential primary debates, 2024