Mike Cox (American politician)

Michael Anthony Cox (born December 30, 1961) is an American attorney and politician who served as Michigan's 52nd Attorney General from 2003 to 2011. He was the first Republican to hold that office since Frank Millard in 1955. Cox took office in 2003 and won re-election in 2006. Jennifer Granholm, who went on to become the Governor of Michigan, preceded him in office.

Cox lost the Republican gubernatorial primary election August 3, 2010, coming in third behind Rick Snyder and Pete Hoekstra. In April 2025, Cox announced his candidacy for the 2026 Michigan gubernatorial election.

Cox is the son of Irish immigrants. He grew up in Redford, Michigan. After graduating from high school, he served in the United States Marine Corps from 1980 to 1983. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1986 and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1989.

He worked for the Oakland County Prosecutors' office from 1989 to 1990, then the Wayne County office from 1990 to 2002, before being elected attorney general. Cox successfully ran for re-election in 2006, after receiving the Republican nomination at the August Michigan Republican Party Convention. Cox left office in 2010 due to term limits. In 2011, he joined the Detroit law firm Dykema Gosset. He later opened his own law firm, which is best known for representing former University of Michigan students suing the university for sexual abuse perpetrated by sports physician Robert Anderson.

As attorney general, Cox took a prominent role in taking on Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM). Cox opposed BCBSM supported bills and challenged BCBSM in court for the alleged transfer of nonprofit funds to purchase a for-profit company.

In 2003, Cox created a cold case unit to investigate and prosecute cold cases. Cox's team secured notable convictions including Coral Watts; Gary Leiterman; John Rodney McRae; two brothers who killed two Oakland County hunters; two people who killed Christopher Brown; six people who murdered Janet Chandler in 1979; and Timothy Dawson, who was convicted of killing his wife.

In 2006, Cox read a story in The New York Times depicting the sexual abuse of a child in California by a man in Detroit via the underground world of child pornography. Cox initiated an investigation, and police found hundreds of computers with thousands of pornographic images in Ken Gourlay's possession. Eventually, Gourlay was convicted of several charges including enticing a child to engage in sexually abusive activity and was sentenced to six years by circuit court judge Archie Brown in 2007.

Cox played a role in the aftermath of a party at Manoogian Mansion, then the residence of Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Strippers were alleged to have been present at the party and allegedly assaulted; one dancer was murdered shortly after. Citing no evidence, no proof, and no witnesses, Cox declined to offer a subpoena, effectively closing an investigation by the State of Michigan into allegations of the "wild party." The Michigan State Police continued its own separate investigation.