Former President Donald Trump and national Republican leaders recently decided to remove Michigan GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo from her post and replace her with former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI). The state party chairwoman has refused to step down, throwing the Michigan Grand Old Party into chaos over the power struggle on top of its broken finances.
“We need to build the brand back, with our grassroots and our donor class,” Hoekstra said. “My intention is to rebuild those relationships.”
"The RNC has decided that I am chairperson. There are not 2 conventions.
There is 1 convention that will be recognized by the RNC.
It is the 1 that is being called by the person that is being recognized as the chairperson of the Michigan GOP."Fmr Ambassador @petehoekstra… pic.twitter.com/tsFkB8O26g
— Justin Barclay (@MrJustinBarclay) February 21, 2024
According to a recent story in the Washington Times, the Michigan Republican Party was already piled with debt when a yearslong donor who had given over $1 million in a decade asked to meet with Karamo. The chairwoman turned the megadonor away and reportedly insulted him, calling the man a “RINO,” short for “Republican In Name Only.”
In 2024, with the four-year presidential election cycle in full swing, the Michigan GOP’s finances are in such bad shape that Karamo has sued recent party leaders to get a judge’s permission to sell the party’s headquarters. She is managing that while fighting off the national GOP — led by Donald Trump — campaigning to remove her from her position to start fresh with Hoekstra.
The Wolverine State is a center of rugged midwest industrial conservatism and outdoor conservative values, but also a blue-state bastion of union Democrat progressivism and urban, black, and minority socialist Democrats. The state’s big labor mindset toward finances may have spread to the Republican Party there, but Trump Republicans are ready to take the reins.
The Michigan Presidential Primary is on Tuesday, February 27. The time has come for Michiganders to show up at the polls and vote for the Republican Presidential nominee who will oust the incompetent occupant that currently resides in the White House. You can contact your local… pic.twitter.com/K9djgPUmyu
— Michigan GOP (@MIGOP) February 24, 2024
Most analysts, commentators, and politicians expect Trump to win the Republican primary in Michigan on Tuesday. But his campaign is working to boost Republican turnout in a swing state that could make the difference between Trump and President Joe Biden in the rematch shaping up for November.
Steve Willis, chair of the Clinton County GOP in Michigan near Lansing, criticized Trump for getting involved in state politics from so far away, going off briefings from advisors, “I don’t think he should be involved in state politics to begin with. He’s just listening to people that have his ear and he makes a decision.”
