LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – More than 2,000 credentialed Republican delegates came from every county in Michigan on Saturday to attend and vote at the 2022 MIGOP Nominating Convention at the Lansing Center in Lansing. The event started out with conflict right away with a lot of boos for MIGOP Chairman Ron Weiser and then things went downhill from there with the delegates stopping him from bringing the convention to order because they were against a waiving of the official call. The information for the call was put up on the big screen and the convention went forward with the Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem.
There was a motion made to vote to replace the seated Macomb County delegates that were chosen by current Macomb County GOP Chair, Eric Castiglia with delegates chosen by a competing convention hosted by previous Macomb County GOP Chair, Mark Forton. The MIGOP had recently chosen to side with Castiglia’s convention and delegate picks after reviewing their rules and consulting with attorneys. The motion was approved, the delegates voted, and the motion passed which led to Forton’s delegates being credentialed and seated and the others being removed. There was a motion made to vote on the rules committee report as amended with the Macomb County delegation change and it was approved.
Then it was time to vote on Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon’s choice for Lieutenant Governor, Shane Hernandez. Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno and MIGOP Ethnic Vice Chair Bernadette Smith both spoke at the podium, endorsing Hernandez and at the end of the voting, he easily won the vote by 71.13% of the votes taken, all of which were hand-counted. The victorious Hernandez and Dixon came out together to thank the crowd.
The convention also included the confirmation of the April endorsement of convention candidates. These endorsements included Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno, Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo, two candidates for Justices to the Michigan Supreme Court, Brian Zahra and Paul Hudson; two candidates for the State Board of Education, Linda Lee Tarver and Tami Carlone; two candidates for Wayne State University Board of Governors, Craig Wilsher and Christa Murphy; two candidates for Michigan State University Board of Trustees, Travis Menge and Mike Balow; and candidates for University of Michigan Board of Regents, Sevag Vartanian and Lena Epstein.
For the first time in its history, the Michigan GOP had their endorsement convention in April ahead of their August convention and voted on the candidates listed above. This put them in the same timeline as the Democrats who in the past were able to start campaigning months ahead of the Republican party. Today’s August convention was a confirmation of those April candidates in addition to other business being conducted including the vote for Lieutenant Governor.
The convention, which was supposed to end around 12:30 p.m., ended at 4:50 p.m. DePerno came onstage to ask the delegates, “Are you ready to win this?” and he was answered by an enthusiastic crowd. He continued, “I am honored to make the motion to close this convention so that we can go and kick some ass!” The crowd was even more enthusiastic after that statement. Weiser went to the podium and said, “All those who support closing the convention, say aye” to which everyone screamed in agreement after a long day. Then, showing a sense of humor after dealing with the cantankerous delegates, Weiser said, “I’m not going to ask for opposition.”
After the convention was officially adjourned, the delegates were all invited to go to the Capitol lawn for the Red Wave party that was scheduled to include Dixon, Hernandez, special guest Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, DePerno and many of the other candidates.
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