When a conflict is clearly good vs evil, or right vs wrong, picking a side is easy. However, oftentimes battles involve varying levels of wrongdoing. Politics in particular tends to gradually transform good, well-meaning people into actors that behave unethically to achieve personal or political gain. As a voter, it can be difficult when you discover people you tend to agree with, or support, are acting in unexpected ways that you do not condone.
The Michigan GOP nominating convention that took place in late August 2024 in Flint, MI, serves as an example where individuals on both sides of the Michigan Republican political divide acted poorly. We could tally points in an effort to determine which side bares the greatest fault, or we can point out unbecoming behavior by individuals on both sides and acknowledge that neither side represented the majority of Michigan Republican voters or the majority of Michigan Republican precinct delegates. At the convention, both establishment and grassroots leaders played a tit-for-tat game in which the real losers were the delegates who attended the convention to perform their duty, those who vote Republican, and the reputation of the Michigan GOP as a whole.
Kristina Karamo was removed as MIGOP chair on January 6, 2024. Ever since, both sides have sent emails and other forms of communication to precinct delegates claiming to be the “real” GOP. Communications contained angry rhetoric furthering the divide between the two factions. Neither side is seemingly interested in ever uniting to actually try to win elections and stop the progressive Democrat takeover of the state. The email below, making accusations against the Karamo tenure, was sent out by the establishment just five days after the vote to remove Karamo.
Pay attention to the bottom sentence about “verbal emotionalism” and keep that in mind as you read the rest of the article.
On the other side, the Karamo supporters sent out emails using language such as “fraud,” “hoax,” and “thug” to describe actions and people.
Although initial reactions seem to prioritize emotional response, the two sides have a choice: they can either reconcile or form two separate parties. Let’s fast forward from January 2024 to August. In the lead up to the convention, each side sent multiple daily emails to delegates which were dismissive and insulting to the other side. The emails effectively divided the party members into two factions.
On the Karamo side, emails were sent out encouraging delegates to boo and disrupt the convention.
The Hoekstra supporters were calling the Karamo supporters the “antifa wing” of the GOP and Marxists while encouraging their followers to return the boos.
Neither side made any attempts to unite which is sad, because most voting Republicans and many precinct delegates agree on the majority of issues. The stage was set for an embarrassing and chaotic convention. Seemingly in search of a confrontation with the Karamo camp, the establishment MIGOP leadership in charge of the convention used strong-arm tactics that pushed the limits.
As Pete Hoekstra took the stage, boos did drown out cheers. It was clear that Hoekstra was not a popular chair, despite holding an endorsement from President Trump. In accordance with the marching orders in the above email, the boos turned to disruption. A delegate and Karamo supporter named Bob Blackmer continued booing and heckling, to the frustration of those around him.
An older grown man throwing a tantrum while other grown adults retaliate is not a good look on either side. The behavior resulted in Blackmer’s arrest. Unfortunately, Blackmer gave them a reason by continuing to resist when he was asked to leave.
After he was led out, a Hoekstra supporter felt the need to continue the discord by chiding him for his representation of his county.
This is a bad look for the Michigan Republican Party, especially when leadership on both sides encouraged unbecoming behavior and continually antagonized the other side, but this was far from the worst of it.
Kristina Karamo attended the convention, as she had every right to do. She was actually given an all-access pass by Alexandria Taylor, who was running for Michigan Supreme Court. Karamo was there, ostensibly, to campaign on behalf of Taylor. Naturally, this was met with resistance by the Hoekstra camp, who went out of their way to follow Karamo and her associates with the sergeant at arms and security personnel. With an all-access pass, Karamo was permitted to be on the convention floor during appropriate times, where the voting delegates were assembled.
The key term is “during the appropriate times.” Prior to a vote, an announcement was made to clear the floor of non-voting attendants. However, Karamo on at least one occasion, remained on the floor during a vote. In the photo below, she was pictured kneeling with others, so as not to be counted among the supporters of a motion.
It should be noted that this picture was taken by those who align with Hoekstra, as proof of Karamo not vacating the floor during a vote. Another interpretation of this photo is that Karamo was kneeling to ensure she was not counted among the voters. Additionally, from where she was positioned, it was doubtful the chair even saw her on the floor. In this situation, it seems both sides have a different interpretation of what occurred. Those who support Hoekstra see this as Karamo violating the convention rules and participating in some form of “election interference”. Those who support Karamo see this as Karamo making every effort to avoid being counted amongst the participants by kneeling, while utilizing her all-access badge to be on the floor.
Despite Karamo having an “all-access” badge, it appears the Hoekstra camp did not have any intention of letting her or her supporters move freely among the convention floor. Rather, it seems Hoekstra’s security and sergeant at arms followed, harassed, and incited the Karamo group in every way they possibly could. Ultimately, this led to Karamo’s removal from the convention, with a police escort marching her out of the building.
Post her removal from the convention, Karamo took to X (formerly Twitter) to post a video of her account of what happened. I encourage you to watch the whole thing as Karamo explains that she was fairly given an all-access badge by Alexandria Taylor, but Hoekstra’s security team attempted to remove her all-access badge and offered to replace it first with a guest pass and later with a campaign staff pass.
A guest pass, as Karamo stated, was not an acceptable alternative because it would not have allowed her on the convention floor to campaign for her candidate. She rightfully refused that “solution” by the Hoekstra security team. Next, she stated security offered her a campaign staff badge, but that solution was also unacceptable because she “needed to be able to freely move.”
It was clear that the Hoekstra team was not going to allow the former MIGOP chair full access to the convention. What is less clear is Karamo’s motives. If Karamo was there to campaign for a candidate only, why not accept the campaign staff badge? That action could have calmed the situation or made the Hoekstra side take more extreme actions which would have further exposed their true intentions.
I reached out to people on both sides of this divide to seek answers on what happened and to better understand the differences between badge types. Why was the campaign staff badge “unacceptable” to Karamo? What was in an “all-access” badge that a “campaign-staff” badge did not allow? When I asked this question of someone directly on the floor standing with Karamo, I was told “this ridiculous line of questioning the badge qualifications needs to end. It is unproductive and would not have changed the outcome.” I was never given an answer as to why the campaign staff badge was not acceptable.
This piqued my curiosity, so I reached out to multiple people heavily involved in the running of the convention to ask the same question. Here is the response:
“My understanding of staff badges is you could get on the floor but not everywhere (think, behind the stage, up to the sound booth, in the staff area where delegate credentials were printed off…) It didn’t matter what credential anyone had, when the direction was given to clear the floor, if you are not a voting delegate, you were directed to clear the floor.”
Why, if the campaign staff badge allowed Karamo to be on the floor with the delegates and to campaign for her candidate, did she say it was unacceptable? Why was access to areas such as behind the stage, the sound booth, or the credentialing tables necessary for Karamo to campaign for her candidate?
This led me to reach out to another attendee, who responded,
“All-access allowed you to get behind the stage or in any restricted areas. Each campaign got 25 credentials, 5 of which were all access. The rest said “campaign staff” on them. Those allowed them to get on the delegate floor or the rooms designated for campaigns. During voting they were all supposed to clear the delegate floor. In Karamo’s case, she was on the floor, heading to the stage to interrupt proceedings. No badges allowed this. Only delegates could bring motions. She was also voting in the standing and sitting votes. All credentials could be removed for failure to follow the rules.”
With the disclaimer that this quote came from someone who is likely not a fan of Karamo, it begins to paint a different picture. Remember, emails were sent out prior to convention encouraging disrupting the convention, booing, etc. It got a man arrested for following through on those encouragements.
What is most concerning to me is the Karamo faction’s unwillingness to answer simple questions. When I sought out Karamo’s reasoning, I was met with stonewalling and vitriol for daring to ask the question. If intentions and motives are pure and clear, an answer to what seemed to me a fairly innocuous question should not have been met with such anger.
Sometimes good people act unbecomingly. Sometimes both sides make poor decisions. Sometimes the truth lies in the middle. Was Hoekstra and his staff looking for any excuse to remove Karamo? Absolutely. Did Karamo provide them a valid reason? Yes. Was that reason avoidable? Again, yes. Would Hoekstra’s staff had found another reason to remove her? Most likely yes as well. If you want to make your adversary look bad, do not play into their hands. Make them go to their plan B, C, D, rather than allowing their plan A to succeed.
Everyday Michigan Republican citizens are counting on the elected party leadership to actually lead the way in getting true conservatives elected to office, but if the current infighting continues, the most likely outcome will be splitting the Republican vote in a way that will enable Democrats and Progressives to take over. Actions speak louder than words and the actions taken by these current and former party leaders makes me wonder if division is the ultimate goal.