Political positions
During his 2018 Senate campaign, James ran on a typical Republican platform, describing himself on his campaign website as "a pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-business conservative." He emphasized his desire to defund Planned Parenthood and compared Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, to "genocide." He opposes the death penalty, does not believe employers should be able to fire workers due to their sexual orientation, and opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana.
James says he wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which he has called "a monstrosity." According to The Detroit Free Press, James was careful not to take a position on the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to immediately strike down the entire ACA as unconstitutional. When pressed in a September 2020 interview, he said he was against the ACA lawsuit without a replacement plan in place, but did not criticize Republicans for pushing the lawsuit.
James supported Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. He later became a Trump supporter, and tweeted in 2018 that, if elected to the Senate, he would back Trump "2,000%." During his 2020 campaign, James accepted Trump's endorsement and campaigned alongside him. James has not been publicly critical of Trump or his actions. During a meeting with black faith leaders, James was asked whether he disagreed with Trump on anything. James said, "Everything from cutting Great Lakes funding to 'shithole countries' to speaking ill of the dead. I mean, where do you want to start?" In a leaked audio recording of a meeting with African American leaders in Michigan, James was asked why he hadn't publicly criticized Trump. He said he thought it was better to be silent in public in order to gain access to Trump. James said, "Donald Trump doesn't need less Black folks around him, he needs more," and that his goal was "achieving equity and equality for our people, not standing up on Twitter and condemning folks." During the campaign, Democrats sought to tie James to Trump, while James has said his candidacy was not a referendum on Trump.
During his 2020 campaign, James declined to take specific positions on a number of policy questions, including how the Social Security Trust Fund would be protected from the impact of a payroll tax cut, whether the Senate should vote to confirm a new Supreme Court justice to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg before or after the 2020 presidential election, and whether he thinks military bases named for Confederate generals should be renamed.
In July 2026, James jointly penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney demanding immediate action from the Canadian government regarding wildfire smoke originating from wildfires burning nearby in Canada. This letter included the passage "Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met".
During a July 2026 Newsmax interview about Islamic extremism, James said "I didn't go and fight extremists to have them on our doorstep here. Under no circumstances will we be a home in Michigan for extremism." The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) accused James of Islamophobia and James said he would seek to designate CAIR as a terrorist organization. James said "Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu, I will fiercely defend your religious freedom and every Michigan resident's right to worship peacefully — or not worship at all."
