LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A Michigan Republican Party rift over a leadership plan to award delegate votes for next year’s national convention to select the party’s presidential nominee is the latest in a slew of factions dividing the already embattled political party.
The plan, approved over the weekend at a closed-door meeting in Grand Rapids, would allow 16 of the party’s 55 convention delegates to be awarded based on the Michigan primary election planned for Feb. 27. The other 39 delegates would be awarded based on 13 district caucuses held March 2.
The party’s convention delegates have been chosen based on results in an open primary election, which was held on March 10, 2020.
Opponents say the new plan unfairly favors former President Donald Trump and disenfranchises many Republican-leaning voters. Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo is an outspoken Trump supporter and received his endorsement when she ran against incumbent Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in 2022. Those who support the resolution say the plan offers a compromise after state Democrats and the Democratic National Committee moved the date of Michigan’s primary from March to February 27.
The Michigan GOP says that date change is in violation of Republican National Committee rules that say only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada can hold nominating contests before March 1.
According to Rescue Michigan, Democrats in the Michigan Legislature hit the ground running when they took control of both houses in January, and voted to move Michigan’s presidential primary from March to February 27. That bill was never even referred to a committee for a hearing. All Democrats supported this move; all Republicans opposed it.
Rescue Michigan explained why the move disenfranchises Republican voters. “Under national rules, Michigan would have gotten only 12 delegates to the Republican National Convention, instead of55, if we held our primary so early that it violated the RNC’s rules. Democrats knew this,” the group wrote in an email. “Democrats wanted to make Michigan an early primary state, just in case something terrible happens to Joe Biden (God forbid!) and they have an open presidential contest.”
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In addition, Rescue Michigan claimed the move stemmed from satisfying Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is rumored to be a contender for the White House despite her telling the media that’s untrue and that governing Michigan is her “dream job.”
This latest split is one of many the embattled Michigan GOP has experienced in recent months. Former Michigan GOP co-chairs Ron Weiser and Meshawn Maddock did not support Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon. She lost to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.
After Dixon won the primary, the several losing candidates threatened to toss her choice of Shane Hernandez as her running mate. Eventually, the party united and backed Dixon’s wishes.
Weiser, whom many booed at the convention, left the party with roughly $460,000 worth of debt after he and Maddock stepped down. The party has since closed its Lansing headquarters and is operating a P.O. Box in Grand Rapids.
Earlier this month, former Gov. Rick Snyder, who backed President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, will lead fundraising for the 2024 Michigan House campaigns. He will work with Kalamazoo businessman Bill Parfet on the fundraising efforts.
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