• Michigan gubernatorial candidates disclose personal finances for first time under new state law
• Republican Ralph Rebandt disclosed $800,000 Bitcoin gift, declines to name source. Later gave his own campaign $795,000.
• Only three of nine active candidates disclosed monetary amounts under the law, which critics have criticized for ‘loopholes’

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LANSING — A Republican gubernatorial candidate who has put $795,000 into his own campaign says he did so after selling $800,000 in Bitcoin that was a “gift from a longtime friend.”

Pastor Ralph Rebandt of Elmira disclosed the gift as “unearned income” in a personal financial disclosure form submitted to the state. In an interview with Bridge Michigan, he declined to say who gave him the Bitcoin and said he could not remember exactly when he received it.

All candidates for the state’s top political job were required to file personal financial disclosure reports by Friday under a Michigan law that took effect in 2024. 

No gubernatorial candidates missed the deadline, but how much information they provided varied widely, a byproduct of what critics have called gaping “loopholes” in rules that lawmakers finalized for themselves in 2023. 

Just three of the nine candidates actively running for governor opted to provide monetary values for their various sources of income and assets: Rebandt, fellow Republican Mike Cox and Democrat Jocelyn Benson. 

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“The currency of leadership is transparency,” said Cox, an attorney who disclosed more than $8.4 million in investments. 

“I don’t understand why others running for governor would not be as transparent as me,” he said in a statement. 

This year’s gubernatorial election is the first since voters in 2022 approved a constitutional amendment requiring personal financial disclosures from state-level elected officials and candidates. 

Legislators who implemented the law mandated minimal requirements. Transparency advocates have slammed the law for not living up to its promise of exposing potential conflicts of interest. 

Asked about the Bitcoin gift he disclosed, Reband told Bridge that he had largely depleted his retirement savings to help fund his failed 2022 campaign for governor, noting he was “not a millionaire” like some other candidates. 

“I have a friend who knew that I had given everything that we had for retirement, and he came to me and said, ‘You know, Ralph, I just want to help you out. You can do whatever you want to with this money,’” Rebandt said. 

Rebandt sold the gifted Bitcoin “at its highest point” last year, he explained.

“It was a good opportunity, and (I) just kept thinking, you know, ‘I didn’t earn this $800,000’ or whatever it was. We ended up, I don’t even know how much we put in the campaign, but we didn’t earn it.”

Reband told Bridge he received the Bitcoin gift “way before I announced (my campaign), but I don’t remember exactly.” Within a month of announcing his candidacy last September, he loaned his campaign $795,000 via three transactions. 

Those loans represented about 81% of his campaign funding through the end of 2025, according to state filings. Candidates won’t have to disclose campaign finances again until late July, weeks before the Aug. 4 primary. 

Rebandt’s reported gift and subsequent loans to his own campaign didn’t sit well with Bob LaBrandt, a longtime Michigan campaign finance expert. 

“It kind of smells,” LaBrant told Bridge. “Obviously, we don’t have a whole lot of experience with people getting $800,000 gifts. Unfortunately, nobody seems to care unless they file a campaign finance complaint.”

Michigan law limits individual donations to campaigns, a cap set at $8,325 for a gubernatorial candidate this cycle. Contributions made on behalf of another person count toward the original individual’s contribution limits.

Rebandt told Bridge “there was no connection” between the gift and his decision to run.

“I’ve been telling people that I want to be the most truthful, honest, and transparent governor that Michigan’s ever had, so I figured that was a good way to do it,” Rebandt said of his disclosure. 

Rebandt reported earning $60,000 as a self-employed pastor last year, and another $40,680 in Social Security benefits between himself and his wife. 

Hisinvestments include $27,000 worth of a cryptocurrency called TEXITcoin, which had been marketed to Texas secessionists and had drawn criticism for using promotion tactics similar to multilevel marketing.

The Texas State Securities Board issued an emergency cease and desist order to TEXITcoin’s backers in February for allegedly running the business without registration and not providing investors “with the material information necessary to evaluate the investment.”

Personal financial disclosure reports filed by several other candidates were generally less revealing.

Republican John James reported owning three homes: One in Shelby Township, his congressional district, another in Cannon, outside Grand Rapids, and a third in Empire, an Up North enclave bordering the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. 

He reported that two of the three mortgages were held by trusts in the name of John A. James — his father, who founded the supply chain business James has touted running. 

James also reported receiving dividends from 15 different financial vehicles in 2025, but it’s not clear how much those were worth. He said only that he received at least $200 from each. 

As a member of Congress, James is also required to file a much more detailed disclosure with the US House every year. In April, he requested an extension to file his 2025 disclosure and won’t have to file the federal disclosure until after the August primary.

Benson, a Democrat, reported specific monetary values in her disclosure filing. Outside of her $112,400 salary as secretary of state, she reported $63,000 in income from the publisher of her recent book, a part memoir, part credo called “The Purposeful Warrior.”

Benson also reported that her husband Ryan Friedrichs, who has been the subject of some controversy for prior ties to Michigan data center projects, was paid $370,000 last year as an executive at Related Companies. She disclosed a little over $1 million in retirement savings and $150,000 held between two joint bank accounts with Friedrichs. 

In a statement, Benson campaign spokesperson Maggie Amjad said “Jocelyn believes that Michiganders deserve transparency from their leaders. It’s why she consistently exceeds financial disclosure requirements and urges all elected leaders and candidates to do the same.”

Independent candidate Mike Duggan disclosed salaries for himself and his wife — an administrator and academic at Wayne State University. But those salaries, $210,000 and $311,000, respectively, are already publicly available, as the positions are publicly funded.

Duggan’s campaign said neither he nor his wife have exercised any control over their managed investments — ethics watchdogs often point to placing assets in a blind trust as a way to avoid financial conflicts of interest. 

Among the other filings:   

• Cox, a Republican and the only other candidate to report the value of his finances, disclosed more than $8.4 million in investments and about $177,000 in cash. He has donated more than $2.5 million of his own money to his campaign. Cox listed the value of his law practice at $18 million but did not disclose the firm’s income in 2025.  
• Republican businessman Perry Johnson had the most voluminous report but did not disclose specific dollar amounts associated with 43 different businesses he listed, along with seven bank accounts and numerous other assets, including a home in Bloomfield Hills and land in Farmington Hills. 
• Democrat Chris Swanson, the Genesee County sheriff, did not disclose specific monetary figures but reported receiving at least $1,000 in income from six sources, including the county he works for. His other sources of income included the University of Michigan, where he was a lecturer, Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills, where he was a contractor, his wife’s pallet-sales business, a personal business called Swanson Leadership LLC and the nonprofit Kyle Kuzma Family Foundation associated with the Flint-raised basketball player.
• Senate minority leader Aric Nesbitt, who has appeared in his campaign ads and official communications on his family’s farm in Lawton, reported a lakeside home in his personal financial disclosure and no financial interest in the farm.
• Longshot Democrat Kim Thomas reported working for Kalamazoo Public Schools but didn’t list the district as an employer for the same year. She also reported no assets or liabilities, and her only property was a piece of land in Marshall worth $1,000. She was, however, taking retirement income out of a plan for federal employees.

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