Johnson focuses on economics at Saint Anselm campaign stop

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. – Businessman Perry Johnson made a stop at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College on Monday morning as part of his campaign for the Republican Presidential Nomination.

Johnson is known as an expert on quality control standards and his efforts in the 1980s helping American autoworkers become more efficient and improve product quality to compete with foreign competitors, eventually opening 70 quality-control related companies.

During Monday’s speech, Johnson focused on that background and how he hopes to bring that expertise to the White House, particularly regarding his emphasis on economics.

Johnson is rumored to be a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate from Michigan in 2024 and said that he has received hundreds of phone calls urging him to run. However, he believes that right now running for president is a better way to promote his message for reform espoused in his book “Two Cents to Save America.”

“I can do a lot more as president,” he said. “In fact, I’ll do a lot more as president even if I am not elected as president if I can drum home my two-cent plan.”

While Johnson’s primary pitch behind his candidacy was that he could reduce government spending by using his expertise to make government more efficient, he tied that economic focus into foreign policy topics such as urging European governments to take the burden off the U.S. on Ukraine aid and ensuring that China does not endanger the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. If the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency, he believes that living standards in America would drop instantly.

“I want to make sure opportunities are there for my kids and for my children’s children and each student here at (Saint Anselm College),” said Johnson. “We have a wonderful country and I want to keep it that way.”

Johnson also spoke regarding entitlement reform and improving transparency in healthcare costs. On abortion, he said that allowing the procedure 40 weeks into a pregnancy was unacceptable and he is pro-life with exceptions for the health of a mother, calling views on the issue from the Democratic Party as extreme.

Johnson attempted to run for Governor of Michigan in 2022, but was not allowed on the primary ballot after the Bureau of Elections asserted that nearly 9,400 of his 23,000 petition signatures were fraudulent, a claim he later challenged in court.