“It makes it a lot easier for everybody else because the thought was DeVos would swamp the candidates in the primaries with money,” Grebner said. “It makes it so that it’s not at all clear who will emerge. Before it was at least DeVos versus everybody else.”

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is the only Republican to file for candidacy, but Grebner said he doubts he will follow in Granholm’s successful footsteps that led her from that same office to governor.

“They were both attorney generals, but Granholm was a star,” Grebner said.

Neither DeVos nor Cox would comment on the gubernatorial race, but Cox issued a statement about his potential candidacy.

“Like everyone else in Michigan, I seek to restore our state to its rightful place,” Cox said in the statement. “Together, I want us to restore the Michigan that attracted my parents and so many others, a Michigan that will keep my children and yours here.”