On 24 August 2024, the Michigan GOP held a nominating convention in Flint where precinct delegates voted for candidates to be on the November ballot for University Regents, the State Board of Education, and the State Supreme Court, and nominated presidential electors to represent Michigan. The convention devolved into chaos as two warring factions within the party continued to remain at odds, seemingly intent on destroying each other.
The party split goes back months, if not years. The Michigan GOP, controlled for years by a few elite, large-money donors and political players, saw a new wave of politically motivated, grassroots precinct delegates come together to elect Kristina Karamo as the party chair in February 2023. It was a hopeful moment for those disenfranchised by the party, as it appeared control of the party was returning to the general electorate, providing an opportunity in which values and principles would prevail over money and special interests.
Immediately after her election, the large-money establishment worked against the rightful winners by limiting access to the party’s accounts and documents. Rather than counting on fundraising, previous MIGOP conventions and party expenses were primarily covered by the former party chair, Ron Weiser, and other wealthy donors. In essence, they “owned” the party, and it was a top-down fiefdom. The party did not represent the people, but instead a select few at the top with deep pockets.
Kristina Karamo represented the grassroots; the people that are supposed to lead the party. The political party system is intended to be led from the bottom-up, rather than from the top-down. In theory, this should result in numerous small, financial contributions from local-level individuals, rather than a few large financial contributions from connected elites seeking control and influence. Electing Karamo appeared to be an ideal set-up to put the power back into the hands of the people.
The old guard was not going to just go away quietly however. Intent on ensuring Karamo’s failure, the previous administration withheld access to bank accounts, donor lists, contact information and even to buildings that belonged to the party. Immediately looking to regain control of the party, the “establishment” made the administration of party business as difficult as possible. Unfortunately, Karamo and her team did not make things easier on themselves. Rather than lowering the temperature in the room, the rhetoric was amped up every step of the way. Labels such as “saboteurs,” “globalists,” “cabal,” and “co-conspirators” were thrown around freely. While likely all accurate terms, it was not helpful in bringing the party together.
The money stopped flowing from the big-money donors, making it imperative that the new leadership expand the donor base. Progress sometimes takes time to show, and it was time the Karamo team did not have and was not given. The challenges proved too numerous and the new leadership was unable to sufficiently fund raise.
Only ten months into Karamo’s tenure, which included the delayed access to party information, the establishment began working towards removing her by aggressively using parliamentary rules. Karamo’s co-chair Melinda Pego joined the effort to remove Karamo by signing a petition.
The process of removal involved the two sides arguing over the correct parliamentary procedure surrounding calling a special meeting and then carrying out the meeting. The establishment called a special State Committee meeting for January 6, 2024, that the Karamo camp claimed was illegitimate. Karamo then called a meeting to be held on January 13. JD Glaser, a candidate for MIGOP chair that lost to Karamo, joined the establishment’s push to remove her. Prior to running for chair, he traveled the state to train precinct delegates on the proper use and application of Robert’s Rules of Order, the parliamentary guidelines that govern party conventions and meetings. Many of Karamo’s eventual staff and supporters attended his class and gave it rave reviews.
At the January 6th meeting called by the establishment, 45 state committee members either attended or had proxies attend. Notably, Karamo’s lawyer, Dan Hartman attended, participated, and voted in the meeting. The result was a vote of 40-5 to remove Karamo as party chair. Whether Karamo’s side believed the meeting to be legitimate or not, it was later admitted that not encouraging state committee members to attend was a “tactical error”. It required a two-thirds vote to remove Karamo. Had 17 Karamo-supporting state committee members attended the meeting, along with Dan Hartman, and voted in favor of Karamo, Karamo would still be chair.
At the Karamo meeting one week later on January 13, those in attendance overwhelmingly voted to reaffirm Karamo as chair and to declare that the January 6 meeting was illegitimate. Not surprisingly, the matter wound up in the courts. Ultimately, a judge decided the January 6 meeting was legitimate by virtue of it happening first. Therefore, all actions taken on January 13 were not taken under the rightful chair, voiding anything that happened during that meeting.
Two things can be true at the same time. Firstly, the anti-Karamo faction began immediately, upon her victory, to undermine her leadership. They did everything possible to ensure her failure. They withheld funds, withheld access, and fostered negativity towards Karamo and her supporters. Secondly, it is also true that the parliamentary experts used the rules to their advantage in every way and out-strategized the Karamo camp. This may have made them the “winners” in the battle for control, but it did not preserve the unity of the party, and has been detrimental to conservative ideals across the state.
The events described above set the stage for six more months of infighting and negativity. Currently, the Michigan GOP is chaired by Pete Hoekstra, but around half of the party members do not accept him as the rightful chair. What happened during the August 2024 nominating convention was just a natural progression of the anger and distrust that has been fueled and encouraged by two warring factions within the MIGOP. In the next article we will focus on the August 2024 nominating convention and discuss the vitriol, mistakes, and bad actions which have harmed the credibility of the MIGOP.