LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who was a leading GOP candidate for governor last year before fraudulent signatures on his paperwork derailed his campaign, is planning to enter the race for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Craig will join a growing field of GOP candidates trying to flip a seat that’s remained in Democratic control for over two decades. Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers announced a bid less than a month ago and several others, including former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, are still considering campaigns.

The people familiar with the matter spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement scheduled for next week.

Craig is positioning himself to win the support of former President Donald Trump, who has often swung Republican primaries with his endorsement. He has supported Trump for president in 2024 and wrote in a column this month for the conservative Daily Caller that with Trump in the White House, “it was a proud time to be an American.”

Rogers has been critical of Trump in the past and Meijer, who launched an exploratory committee last month, voted to impeach Trump in 2021 after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Michigan Republicans are vying to replace the U.S. Senate’s third-highest-ranking Democrat, Debbie Stabenow, who announced in January that she would retire after her fourth term. Michigan has long been considered a swing state where Republicans have had success in the past, but the party has not won a Michigan U.S. Senate race since 1994.

The GOP nominees for governor, attorney general and secretary of state in last year’s midterms were all endorsed by Trump but lost by massive margins in the general election to Democratic incumbents.

Third-term U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin leads a field of Democrats vying to replace Stabenow.

Craig spent eight years as the police chief of Michigan’s largest city before retiring in 2021 to pursue a run for governor. He was considered a favorite to win the GOP nomination in last year’s gubernatorial election before he and four other candidates were kept off the ballot after fraudulent signatures were found on their nominating petitions.

Three people have been charged with forgery and other crimes related to the phony petition signatures but no candidate was personally accused of knowingly submitting fraudulent petitions.

While Craig has no prior experience in elected office, he would have among the highest name recognition of the Michigan Senate candidates.

Craig is a native of Detroit, which lost Black representation in Congress in the midterms for the first time since the 1950s. If he wins next year, Craig will become one of four Black members of the Senate, joining Democrats Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Cory Booker of New Jersey as well as Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

When IndyCar and Penske Entertainment officials helped breathe life back into the series’ history at Iowa Speedway, their vision was clear: A hyper-local sponsor to bankroll a top-notch entertainment weekend, more suits than the Indianapolis 500, book some of the most popular country artists and a short oval with a reputation for exciting racing to hold it all together.

“Give this two or three years, and it can be the Sturgis of Iowa or the Lollapalooza of Iowa,” Penske Corp. president Bud Denker told IndyStar in July, hours before the weekend’s back-half of a doubleheader. “Give it time.”

Within five years of Iowa pulling what Denker characterized as “our diehard 6,000-7,000 fans” on race day before the pandemic, the event hosted more than 85,000 this year — though that included several thousands of free tickets and a couple pockets totaling a few thousand Hy-Vee employees each day. At capacity — suites, temporary grandstands and all — Iowa could now host 40,000 fans. Denker sees that as a goal in the not to distant future for an event rumored to cost at least $20 million to put on.

It was an obvious – and frequent – question Monday, across multiple press conferences, as IndyCar rolled out its 17-race schedule for 2024 that includes a doubleheader at an oval track it hadn’t been to in eight years, revitalizing a historic race weekend that had been dying a slow death for a decade or more before that.

Will IndyCar’s return to the Milwaukee Mile be the next Iowa?

The short answer: No.

The longer one: No, because those with the keys don’t think it needs to be in order to succeed. What it did need was Roger Penske and company armed with a checkbook, eager employees and an eye for detail. Because after watching Michael Andretti’s own short-lived marketing and race promotion arm fail to do more than tack on four years to an inevitable conclusion with his promotion of the event from 2012-15, IndyCar brass didn’t want to entrust anyone else with the reins.

Wisconsin’s State Fair Board will serve as the promoter of next year’s penultimate weekend on the calendar and will handle big-picture items like planning concessions and selling tickets – things that are done better by those on the ground armed with decades of institutional knowledge.

But Penske, Denker, Penske Entertainment Corp. president Mark Miles and vice-president Michael Montri will be deeply ingrained in the fine details of this resuscitation project.

“The State Fair owns the track and they run the facility. They had a million people here for this last year’s state fair, so we don’t have to worry about anything other than the racing product itself,” Penske told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. “They can help us on the ticketing and on the promotion. You could almost say we’re co-promoters, if you want to put it that way.

“Before, you had promoters coming in and coming out, and we’re committed. It’s important we take the series to places that have long-staying capabilities, which you have here. We’re coming back with a better product. To find an oval that has the infrastructure that we have here, along with a partner that will help us promote this, that doesn’t happen, so I think that’s one of the reasons why we felt this was really a perfect combination and partnership.”

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In many ways, this track, this partnership and this Labor Day 2024 race weekend is still very much a work in progress. Last December, the Wisconsin State Building Commission approved nearly $3 million in public and private funding (as well as money from the State Fair Park) to give The Mile a much-needed face lift. Phase One took place before its return to the national racing stage in August with the NASCAR Trucks series.

Phase Two, which includes a complete resurfacing and upgrade of pitlane, along with a resurface of 100 feet of the bumpy front-stretch, begins in early-October. It was the promise of those fixes, along with SAFER barrier additions, that helped the track and the State Fair Board get a second look from Penske after an extensive inspection last fall.

“We had heard there was interest, and that (the Park and the state) were prepared to invest in the Fairgrounds, and in particular, the track,” Miles said Monday. “And so, in true Roger Penske fashion, we found ourselves walking the track and looking at every linear foot of wall or SAFER barrier and fencing and restrooms and laid out a vision about the level and quality of upgrades that would need to be made to make it appropriate for us.

“At every turn, the state was there, interested in helping make that happen … and I don’t know that that was true the last time around here in Milwaukee. I think we’re just in a position to make sure it meets everybody’s expectations. The ingredients came together, and it seemed like the right time, and we’re happy to be part of it.”

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Questions on the finer details of the weekend, though, are yet to be determined.

Will there be big-name concert actsd?

Penske (via the Journal Sentinel): “I’m not sure we can afford the entertainment they had at Iowa. We’re going to bring the racing, but we do have an entertainment capability here. Hopefully the State Fair Board, that’s one of the things they can bring to the party, to have some entertainment on Saturday night.”

Will the race weekend lock-in an active, consumer-facing sponsor?

Wisconsin State Fair Park executive director and CEO Shari Black: “That’s something that’s a team effort that we’ll be working on with IndyCar.”

Added Penske: “(Hy-Vee) has been the best we’ve ever seen, coming in and promoting the (Iowa) race, so we would hope to have a sponsor that takes it to that level in this market.”

Will ticket prices, like those (particularly in Year Two) at Iowa, be some of the priciest on the calendar, with no free tickets for young fans and two-day passes that range from nearly $200 to well over $400 just for a reserved bleacher seat?

Penske: “We want it to be reasonable. As we do (for the Indy 500), we’ll have higher prices, and then we’ll have lower prices. And then you look at the corporate sponsorship and those people they want to entertain there, and that’s another opportunity for us to bring in revenue.”

5 thoughts on IndyCar’s 2024 schedule: Risk in Milwaukee return, loss of Texas and more

In total, it leaves little in an identity for the weekend at the outset. What it does have, officials reiterated countless times Monday, is a relatively blank canvas equipped with history in the series that’s unmatched outside IMS – 114 major American open-wheel races to date during its 120-year history – and what appears to be a loud, passionate following on social media that for years have wished for its return.

Now, it’s Penske and company’s job to turn that passion into butts in seats. Years ago, this race weekend struggled to pull 10,000 fans for a single race, at a time when Road America – the National Park of Speed that lives an hour or so north and draws a strong weekend-long camping crowd each June – was not on the IndyCar calendar.

In 2024, that pocket of Wisconsin will attempt to sustain three IndyCar races, six years after former Road America president George Bruggenthies called The Mile’s return “impossible”, eight years after it struggled to draw even 10,000 fans out to the 1-mile oval in West Allis for a single race and just one year after the national racing scene’s return last month pulled just 15,000 for the Trucks.

“In the executive residence, there’s actually a poster from (one of the first American open-wheel races at The Mile) 1939, and things look a little different than today,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said Monday. “But any time you have a chance to redo history and take this into a whole different level, you have to take advantage of that. A lot of people should be thanked for that, but the history of this organization and this track is why we’re here today.”

The Minneapolis Health Department is working to reach out to those struggling with their mental health during this Suicide Prevention Month. The number of people who took their own life last year surpassed suicide deaths in 2020 and 2021.

If you or a loved one is struggling with their mental health, call or text 988 to connect with a trained crisis counselor 24/7.

“It is a very different kind of loss,” said Kara Hirdman, a senior public health specialist in mental well-being at the Minneapolis Health Department. “It’s not like there is an absolute understanding of why, right?”

She still has vivid memories of receiving the call her uncle Paul Lee died by suicide on Christmas Eve in 2006.

“It’s one of those memories that you can you can imagine exactly where you were at clear as day,” she said. “It was just a whirlwind of sadness and anger and frustration.”

Hirdman remembers her uncle struggling with anxiety, depression and substance use disorder before his death. She feels his loss every day.

“It’s kind of just an open wound that doesn’t seem to ever fully close or heal,” she said. “The loss is so very devastating because you always have this thought in the back of your head of, ‘Is there something else I could’ve done?’”

Hirdman is sharing her personal story during the Health Department’s Suicide Prevention Month campaign. She hopes to raise awareness about the warning signs and the help that is available to those who are struggling with their mental health.

“We need to make sure this is a very important conversation that can be had without stigma attached,” said Hirdman.

Suicides are increasing in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. The data shows at least 835 people killed themselves in 2022, which was the highest number since 2000. The previous peak was in 2019 when 830 people died by suicide.

In Minneapolis specifically, suicide deaths rose from 40 in 2021 to 58 in 2022.

“We don’t know all the reasons honestly,” said Sue Abderholden, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Minnesota. “Depression and anxiety certainly play a role. Having access to means to take your own life is also part of it, and I think loneliness.”

There are warning signs to look out for. These include someone saying they’re a burden to others or that they’re feeling extremely sad or hopeless, or expressing they want to die. Actions can also indicate a crisis, such as giving items away, increased substance use, sleeping too much or too little, or withdrawing from others.

Abderholden said it’s best to talk to a loved one if they start exhibiting any of those signs.

“Even ask them, ‘Are you thinking about killing yourself?’” she said. “It doesn’t plant the idea but it does also tell that person you’re noticing changes in their behavior, you’re worried about them and that you care about them and that is something that could actually save someone’s life.”

Hirdman wants those who are struggling to know there is hope and encourages them to ask for help, whether that’s by contacting 988 or visiting a nearby emergency room.

“It might be such an uncomfortable situation to ask for help, but we’d much rather you ask for help and be here,” she said. “I wish I could’ve said that to my uncle, that I want him to still be here and I miss him a lot.”

Hirdman added, “It’s more important to know that you stay here and you’re here with your family and friends and know that you’re loved and cared for and there are people and resources that really want to help.”

In addition to the 988 crisis line, there are mobile mental health crisis teams available across Minnesota. You can reach one in your community by contacting the phone numbers listed here.

NAMI Minnesota also has more information about resources available.