A second Trump presidency was not what many conservatives, or even many Republicans, said they wanted. But voters had a different idea on Nov. 5.
What is the Republican Party now, with the many defections that have taken place in the Trump era? What about the authoritarian impulses that Trump indulges? Are they the contours around which a new Republican party is forming?
Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson was joined by three guests to discuss what the future of their politics — as conservatives who opposed Trump — looks like.
Fred Upton, former U.S. Rep from Michigan and a member of the Republican party discussed how MAGA has become ingrained in the culture of the Republican Party. He described how Trump’s Republican Party is marked by an opposition to working with the other side of the political aisle and bridge-building in general, as evidenced by his lack of outreach to primary opponent Nikki Haley. He also discussed how the American primary system, where only a minority of states have ranked choice voting, leads to polarization between the eventual nominees and hurts bipartisan efforts.
Andrea Bitely, a political and communications strategist at Bitely Communications and former spokesperson for former attorney general Bill Schuette, explained that inflation in grocery prices and other “kitchen table” issues have recently dominated the national consciousness causing longer term national issues to fall to the wayside. Trump’s focus on these issues combined with Harris’ lack of messaging regarding them may have contributed to Trump increasing his votes among blue collar workers and union members this cycle. She also discussed a possible switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party by upper-class, educated voters.
Shikha Dalmia, president of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, discussed how the Republican Party platform has evolved from prioritizing limited government, free markets, and free trade to a form of authoritarianism under Trump. This populist authoritarianism is marked by Trump’s appeal to an “in group” through the scapegoating of an “out group” consisting of several minority groups and his carving away at the guardrails against executive authority.
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.
Guests:
Shikha Dalmia is the president of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. She is also the editor-in-chief of the free Substack publication, “The UnPopulist.”
Andrea Bitely is a political and communications strategist at Bitely Communications, and a former spokesperson for former Attorney General Bill Schuette.
Fred Upton is a former U.S. Rep from Michigan and a member of the Republican Party.
Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.
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Editor’s note: This story includes a reference to sexual assault.
In a follow-up to our story about rural Democrats, we ask four Republicans in Kalamazoo what it’s like to be a red drop in a blue pond.
At the edge of a wooded lot on a busy street in Kalamazoo, there’s a collection of Republican signs. What’s unusual is that some are not on the ground.
“I put all my signs up on Howard Street, up in the trees, because I had 25 Trump signs stolen in the last election,” Ron Wiser, the owner of the signs, said.
Signs advertising Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sit stapled to trees on Howard Street in Kalamazoo.
I met Ron at his office at the financial group he founded in 1960. Wiser actually votes in South Haven, but he works and has a home in Kalamazoo. Trump supporters were relatively rare in the city in 2020; in the city’s best precinct for the then-president, just three in 10 voters cast their ballot for him. In half of city of Kalamazoo precincts, Trump got 20% or less of the vote, and in one he got just 5%.
Wiser said he supports Trump because like him, Trump’s a financial conservative and a businessman.
“I want somebody who’s actually worked and ran a business, and their livelihood depended on what they produce.”
Wiser thinks Trump would spend more prudently than his rival, Democrat Kamala Harris. His focus on government spending made him the most traditional of the Republicans I talked to. But Wiser suggested that he doesn’t think the former president is perfect.
“I would like to see Trump tone down some of his rhetoric. I hope some of the Democrats would tone down some of the rhetoric, and we could get back and — to a point where we can talk.”
And though Wiser’s a financial conservative, he doesn’t want the U.S. to pull its support for Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.
Trump has been less than resolute in his support of Ukraine. And while Wiser said he’s fine with nudging the country toward a negotiated peace, he would not support abandoning it to Russia.
“We did this with Hitler. We let him have one country after another and waved our finger at him. And he kept going, kept going and going and going.”
Wiser’s wife Ruth also supports Trump, and like her husband, she supports him for economic reasons, but her other core issues vary from Ron’s.
Ron and Ruth Wiser both said they vote for economic reasons, but Ruth said immigration is also one of her top issues.
I met Ruth at the Wisers’ home south of downtown. She said people don’t always see the nuances in her views.
“I think people look at me because I’m voting for Trump, and they think that she’s against abortion or something. No, not at all.”
But Ruth said it’s okay with her that the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states to set their own abortion policies.
“That is our democracy, that we have the opportunity as citizens to vote and our representatives to represent us, to make those laws for your state.”
Trump critics say he could restrict abortion nationally by changing Food and Drug Administration rules, enforcing the Comstock Act or signing a ban. But Ruth doesn’t think he’ll go against the states.
Before she retired, Ruth was an engineer, then a business executive. Now she tutors at a dual-language school in Kalamazoo. Some of her students are from immigrant families.
Trump said if he’s reelected, he’ll mass-deport undocumented people, and end some forms of legal immigration.
Ruth said she would be heartbroken if her students or their families were deported, but she added the law must be followed.
“The idea that our border is open and people are coming across, criminals, rapists, murderers, but rapists primarily is terrifying.”
Ruth said she survived rape as a child, informing this belief.
“I heard on the news today, 420,000 criminals have come across our borders and are living around the US. Of those 13,000 have committed murders.”
There are more than 400,000 convicted criminal immigrants in the US, including 13,000 convicted of homicide, according to an NBC report. But most did not just arrive in the US. Some came as long as four decades ago. And many of them are serving jail or prison sentences, the Department of Homeland Security told NBC.
Additionally, the Department of Justice released a report last month looking at how often undocumented people are arrested in Texas.
It found that the rate was less than half that of American-born citizens for violent and drug crimes, and even lower for property crimes.
Ruth Wiser said she mostly keeps her beliefs to herself, but will still discuss politics with friends.
In Ruth’s view, the media gives Democrats a pass while unfairly scrutinizing Trump. She’s not the only one who thinks so.
‘They get away with it’
“The whole thing is to take him out. And it’s not working so far. And I pray to God it doesn’t work,” Patricia Melluish said.
Patricia and her husband Jim live in the Winchell neighborhood, about a five-minute drive from the Wisers.
Patricia was a stay-at-home mom; Jim is a retired ophthalmologist.
In their yard they have signs for Trump, state and local Republican candidates, and one more, which Jim reads: “Do you like law and order, secure borders, prosperity for all? Then vote Republican.”
Jim said he feels accepted by his Harris-supporting neighbors. But he recalls confronting a group of teenagers back in 2020 after they knocked down his Trump sign.
“They were very ashamed, and they were, said they wouldn’t do it again and all that. And I think they learned a little bit of a lesson, but it’s, I don’t see any Democrat signs get getting damaged.”
Patricia Melluish says that Trump says things that are true but uncomfortable.
“I think he says, a lot of times, the things that people agree with but won’t say.”
And the Melluishes said the media, government and Democrats are the ones pushing lies, not Trump.
Myriad investigations found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, but Patricia said that’s just another one of the lies.
“There was a lot of research done, and there was total evidence of it. But the mass media, the mainstream media, as my understanding just refused to cover it.”
In Jim’s view, Democrats are rarely checked on what they say.
“Because they’re saying it nicely and they’re happy, and they don’t throw in personal digs, they get away with it.”
And Jim thinks the media is unfair to Trump over the things he does say.
The recent baseless claims by Trump and his running mate JD Vance that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio? Jim said he doesn’t see it as racist, or even necessarily false.
“If you go back to their island that they came from, they live in dire poverty, and they do have to sometimes resort to that sort of eating. Those people are starving, and so it’s not, it’s not putting the Haitian down,” Jim said.
“Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know. I don’t really care,” he added. “It’s a small point when I think about how many wars have started with Trump versus with Biden, the Biden-Harris administration.”
And a New York jury finding Trump guilty in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records? Jim said it shows the courts are corrupt.
“It tells me it’s all the more reason to elect him so he can clean at least the federal judiciary up and the prosecutors and all that.”
With people so divided on what is true and what isn’t, Jim doesn’t see the political divide healing any time soon.
“I don’t think it’ll ever happen. I don’t think we’ll get back together for a couple hundred years or whatever it is.”
Steve Frisbie is the vice chair of Calhoun County’s Board of Commissioners, but now he hopes to win Michigan’s 44th House District.
Campaigning in Battle Creek
Steve Frisbie has not given up on talking across the divide. He can’t afford to.
Frisbee’s a Republican running for Michigan’s 44th house district against Democratic incumbent Jim Haadsma. It’s a seat Republicans think they can win.
I followed Frisbie as he knocked on doors in Battle Creek’s Washington Heights neighborhood.
On his front steps, Wendell LaGrand told Frisbie he’s a teacher, and a fan of his opponent. But he and Frisbie ended up talking for nearly 20 minutes.
“I can say I’ll remember you. I’ll look down that list of people, I’ll see Mr. Steve Frisbie, and Mr. Steve Frisbie might get a vote,” LaGrand said.
Frisbie said he appreciated that LaGrand was open to the idea of voting for him.
LaGrand said he liked the interaction, and Frisbie’s “boots on the ground” campaigning.
“He’s got to care about something, because go door to door in this neighborhood is, well, that’s impressive.”
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
WMUK also spoke with rural Democrats. That story can be found here.
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Despite often being a loyal voting bloc for Democrats, Black Americans are politically diverse. Garrison Hayes, a journalist for Mother Jones and the Reveal podcast, has been spending some of this year talking to Black Republicans to determine what draws them to the GOP — and, in many cases, to Donald Trump. He joined Created Equal on Thursday to discuss the motivation behind their votes, and what they hope to gain from this election.
Hayes explained that many of the conservative Black voters he met at the Republican National Convention aligned with the party’s flagship issues of the importance of the Second Amendment, opposition to abortion, and protection of individual freedoms. He also explained that all of them outwardly supported Trump’s candidacy and that many espoused a feeling of being taken for granted by the Democratic Party.
He also discussed a growing tide of Black conservatives and Republicans who are unwilling to vote for Trump because of his lack of racial sensitivity and his stances on issues facing Black communities.
“For many Black Republicans there is this lifecycle, where you may hold your policy ideas or your interests politically. But when those political interests come into conflict or tension with your personal racial identity interests, you often are left as a Black Republican with a decision to make,” Hayes said.
Guest:
Garrison Hayesis a journalist and video correspondent for Mother Jones and the Reveal podcast.
Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.
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Republican former Congressman Fred Upton is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Upton served Southwest Michigan in Congress for 36 years.
“I’ve never before voted for a Democrat for president,” Upton said. “I honestly never thought I would, but she’s a strong, committed public servant.”
Upton says he did vote for longtime Democratic U.S. Senator Carl Levin.
According to Upton, politics changed in 2016 once Trump came onto the scene.
“There have always been impassioned fights about policy, but with Trump in charge, politics was more personal, more angry and more divided than ever before,” Upton said.
Upton is unequivocal in his distaste for the former president.
“Instead of focusing on making people’s lives better, Trump is leveling personal attacks, spreading more election lies, and engaging in some of the most unstable and unhinged behavior that we’ve ever seen from a presidential candidate,” Upton said.
As for Michigan’s tight U.S. Senate race, Upton has not made an endorsement, but did say that he donated to Republican candidate and Trump-ally Mike Rogers.
However, Upton says he considers both Rogers and Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin friends.
The general election is taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. For the latest election information, visit WDET’s Voter Guide at wdet.org/voterguide.
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Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance and other Republicans worked to get out the vote during a stop in Detroit Tuesday.
Absentee ballots are already available in Michigan. And some jurisdictions are already able to begin their early in-person voting periods.
The mandatory early voting period begins on Oct. 26.
Vance said supporters of him and former President Donald Trump should embrace those methods.
“I’ve got to be honest with you. I don’t like the fact that we’ve gone from election day to election season in this country. But it is what it is. And if the Democrats are going to take advantage of every avenue to vote, then Republicans, we’ve got to do it too,” Vance told a crowd at Detroit’s Eastern Market.
That stands in stark contrast to messaging during the 2020 presidential race.
The rally was an opportunity for Republicans to try to expand their base in Michigan during what has been a tight presidential race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
It was Vance’s first event in the Motor City since he signed on as Trump’s running mate, according to the campaign.
In the heavily Black city, the campaign welcomed a speaking lineup that included a pastor and a choir member of a Black church Trump campaigned at this past summer, a woman who discussed being laid off from her auto job, and a congressional candidate.
Despite the handful of Black speakers, the audience for Vance’s mid-afternoon talk appeared to be largely white. Though speeches tried to reach a broader audience.
Martell Bivings Jr., a candidate running for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, encouraged attendees to build support in Detroit.
“It may not be the coolest thing to say you are a Republican in Detroit. But the time is coming where they will be wearing a shirt and saying it was cool to be a Republican in Detroit,” Bivings said, telling the audience to, “be a Republican in Detroit before it’s cool.”
Throughout the program, speakers implored attendees to reach out into their circles and communities and engage with so-called “low propensity voters.”
During his own speech, Vance pitched to young people.
“To young people, I want you to be able to own a slice of your own country. I want you to be able to build something, build some wealth for you and your family,” Vance said.
While this was his first campaign trip to Detroit proper, Vance has been to the region multiple times in recent weeks. Last week, he spoke in Auburn Hills.
Many of the talking points overlapped between the events. Especially on the topics of immigration, the economy and auto industry.
During the Auburn Hills visit, the Detroit News asked whether a second Trump presidency would honor a commitment to help convert a Lansing GM plant for electric vehicle production. Vance tiptoed around that answer.
The Biden Administration had promised a $500 million grant for the factory.
When asked to clarify, Vance told supporters that wasn’t enough.
“$500 million dollars when you have an EV mandate that’s going to cost 117,000 auto worker jobs, I think that Michigan autoworkers deserve more,” Vance said, citing a statistic provided by the America First Policy Initiative.
The “EV mandate” likely refers to an Environmental Protection Agency rule released earlier this year limiting tailpipe emissions in passenger vehicles. It would apply to cars made in model years 2027 to 2032.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a largely symbolic executive order setting a goal of carbon emission-free vehicles making up half of all vehicles sold by 2030.
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Michigan Democrats currently have a trifecta in state government — with control of the state House of Representatives, Senate and governor’s office. But as November approaches, questions about whether Democrats can maintain their two-seat Majority in the House loom. On this episode of MichMash, host Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben and Zach Gorchow analyze which state House races could potentially tip the scale.
As Michigan House Democrats work to maintain their 56-54 majority, campaign ads are working overtime to help Republicans win back enough seats to gain control.
While TV and radio ads are effective, they can also be costly, and Gorchow and Kasben shared how one of the strategies to win votes could be good ole door-to-door petitioning.
“If you are a really aggressive door-to-door candidate, you can go to every registered voter’s house two to three times during the course of an election cycle. That’s free. You don’t have to spend a million dollars on television for that,” said Gorchow. “You just need a good pair of shoes. And it’s really effective.”
When the legislature and the governor are controlled by the same party we’ve seen large changes to gun laws, abortion rights, etc. Some Democrats are sharing fears that if they lose the trifecta in state government, all the legislative work they’ve done will go to waste. However, many Republicans criticize that agenda as steamrolling rather than working for bipartisan solutions in legislation.
Whoever wins control, Kasben says, it “completely changes the landscape for the next two years.”
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A group of former state GOP politicians, staffers and consultants announced Thursday that they are endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President.
Many members of the group are well-known in state GOP circles and say they hope to move enough other Republicans to vote Democratic to make a difference in the swing state of Michigan.
Former Congressman Dave Trott, who represented southeast Michigan in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2019, said Republican nominee Donald Trump was a disappointment as president and poses a danger if returned to the White House.
“He’s emotionally, intellectually, psychologically and, of course, morally unfit to be president,” Trott said during an online news conference.
Trott said he voted for Trump in 2016 but then for President Joe Biden four years later. Trott said the Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election result confirmed his judgment.
“Now Trump is more dangerous than ever,” Trott said. “He promised to be a dictator on day one. He’s called for the termination of our Constitution. Let me repeat, a candidate for president in this country has called for terminating our Constitution.”
Trott was referring to a December 2022 post on his social media site Truth Social complaining about the outcome of the 2020 election.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump said. Trump later tried to walk it back, but did not remove the post.
Members of the Michigan Republicans for Harris group say their differences with the Democratic nominee are minimal compared their fears about a second Trump presidency.
Long-time GOP strategist and advisor Bill Nowling said Trump mismanaged the economy and foreign policy when he was in office and on January 6th showed he is a threat to a stable democracy.
“We’ve been down this road before,” said Nowling. “We know where it ends. It ends in tyranny. It ends in protests. It ends in mobs taking over our illustrious capitol.”
The announcement of the Republican group’s support for Harris coincided with Trump’s campaign visit to Saginaw. The region is considered key to winning the battleground state of Michigan.
Trump’s Michigan campaign spokesperson dismissed the announcement.
“Former Rep. Trott hasn’t been a Republican for years, and frankly no one cares what he says,” said Victoria LaCivita in an email. “Michigan families are worried about paying their bills, putting food on the table, and saving for their kids’ college tuition.
Any ‘Republican’ campaigning for another four years of unfettered illegal immigration and rising prices under Kamala Harris is neither Republican nor worth listening to.”
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In the race for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, former Congressman and FBI agent Mike Rogers easily won his primary. The Republican was aided by a combination of name recognition, lots of campaign cash, and an endorsement from former President Trump.
Rogers has recently picked up some key endorsements, including from the Michigan Farm Bureau.
AgriPac — the Michigan Farm Bureau’s political action committee — had previously supported retiring Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Stabenow.
Rogers was in Detroit last week for a roundtable with Black clergy.
During the event, Rogers told an anecdote of a Michigan family who was having a hard time making ends meet despite having two incomes.
Rogers attributes the problem to both the inflated price of goods and the fact that people aren’t getting paid enough, despite working full time.
“Part of the problem was when [the Biden Administration] funneled cash into the U.S. economy,” he said. “You got so much cash, so few goods, it just drove all the costs up.”
Two rounds of pandemic-era stimulus checks went out during the Trump Administration, before a third set of checks were given out as part of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act.
However ARPA did pump a lot of federal dollars into municipalities for public works projects. Economists generally agree the stimulus money staved off a recession, but it did fuel a meteoric rise in inflation.
Rogers has been hitting the campaign trail all over the state of Michigan, including multiple stops in Detroit. He says it’s making a difference with Black voters.
“Democrats tell them you can’t vote for the other team because they’re bad people,” Rogers says. “And what they’re finding out is we’re not bad people.”
“We actually have unique solutions for their problems, including literacy, including criminal justice reform, including block grants that actually go to communities.”
Immigration has been a hot topic throughout this election cycle.
Lately, former President Donald Trump and GOP Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance have been using racist tropes to attack Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. The lies about immigrants eating pets and stealing jobs have led to bomb threats and have further widened political divisions in the area.
That’s not something that concerns Rogers.
“These campaigns are full of really bad things that people say over on both sides of the aisle,” Rogers says.
He says the Black faith leaders aren’t concerned with the rhetoric coming from the Trump-Vance campaign.
“These people aren’t listening to that,” Rogers said.
“You know what they’re listening to: How can you help me with criminal justice reform? How can you make my groceries less expensive? How can you make my gas bill [go] down? So I’m not playing that game where we parse words that happened at a rally somewhere. I’m not doing it,” he said.
Rogers is facing Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the general election.
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Michigan Republicans and Democrats exchanged barbs Monday over Chinese investment in the U.S. — and in Michigan in particular.
Michigan Republicans accused prominent state Democrats of providing a “safe zone” for companies fronting for the Chinese Communist party.
The criticism is tied to recent projects involving companies planning manufacturing investments in Michigan.
The main criticism involves a planned electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids. The company behind the project, Gotion, is a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. The articles of association of the parent company say it must “carry out party activities in accordance with the constitution of the Communist party of China,” but a spokesperson for the company has said there’s distance between the Chinese government and the company’s business decisions.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former congressman Mike Rogers accused his Democratic opponent, Representative Elissa Slotkin, of playing a role in attracting the project to west Michigan.
“I can tell you as a member of Congress for those seven terms, never once — never once — did I see an elected official sign a non-disclosure agreement for any issue, let alone a company that is tied to the communist party of China,” said Rogers.
A spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin called Rogers’ allegations a “false attack,” insisting Slotkin has never signed any agreement involving a project connected to the Chinese government.
Slotkin has introduced legislation giving the federal government additional authority to investigate Chinese-backed business dealings in the United States.
Democrats counter that Republicans are trying to distract from Rogers’ own history of working with U.S. companies that have partnered with Chinese businesses.
Rogers worked as a security advisor for AT&T and a risk analyst for Nokia (a Finnish company) while those companies had loose ties to the Chinese telecom company Huawei.
Rogers has defended his business dealings since leaving Congress, insisting his record shows he has long fought against Chinese intellectual property theft and other threats to the U.S.
Rogers and Slotkin are running to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.
Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat could prove pivotal for deciding which party will control the Senate.
The Michigan Republican Party accomplished its goal of choosing candidates for statewide offices including Michigan Supreme Court, state school board, and university boards of education during its nominating convention Saturday in Flint.
The party chose State Rep. Andrew Fink (R-Hillsdale) to run for the state’s open Supreme Court Seat and Circuit Judge Bill O’Grady to run for the final four years of a partial term currently being filled by Justice Kyra Harris Bolden.
Fink pledged to be neutral in his rulings regardless of his personal beliefs.
“If it just always happens to be where your preferences and your interpretation are the same, you probably should take a step back and reconsider your approach to these cases,” he said.
Incumbents Nikki Snyder and Tom McMillan won their race to get on the ballot again for state school board.
Sevag Vartanian and Carl Meyers won the University of Michigan Board of Regents nomination, edging out current regent and former Party Chair Ron Weiser.
Mike Balow and Julie Maday won the nominations for Michigan State University Board of Trustees, taking down sitting Trustee Dan Kelly.
Delegates selected Wayne State University Governor Michael Busuito and newcomer Sunny Reddy to run for Wayne State University Board of Governors.
Many of the speeches during Saturday’s program at the Dort Financial Center in Flint called for unity, spreading the party’s reach, and attacked Democrats on the economy and culture war issues like transgender rights.
Party members heard from speakers like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Rogers. People who once had been relative outsiders, like Dr. Sherry O’Donnell also were mainstays on the stage.
Despite the olive branches, old tensions arose at times during the convention.
Soon after official party business began, a group of attendees unsuccessfully moved to replace the Kalamazoo County delegation led by county party chair Kelly Sackett with a slate of competing attendees led by Republican state committee member Kim Harris.
That’s after the county party had been ordered to redo the delegate selection process.
Later in the morning, former state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo was escorted out of the building.
Flint police led Karamo to her car by her arms as she spoke with reporters and accused current and past party leadership of calling the police on her while she was advocating for a state Supreme Court candidate.
“My goal now is to help candidates get elected. That’s what I’m here to do today is to help Alexandria Taylor and other Republican candidates get elected. My goal is to help our country. But these people want to disturb us because they hate not just me but all of us and what we represent. So, of course, they’d want us gone,” Karamo told reporters.
Police threatened to arrest Karamo for trespassing, though she was wearing an all-access credential during the encounter.
In a statement to reporters, MIGOP spokesperson Victoria LaCivita said credentials can be revoked at any time.
“She was offered a guest credential, she refused. She was asked to take a seat, she refused. She was asked to politely leave, but refused. Law enforcement was called and escorted her out of the building, causing an interruption,” LaCivita said.
Earlier on in the day, smaller spats between Karamo’s allies and supporters of her successor, Chair Pete Hoekstra arose again.
While contesting control of the party earlier this year, Karamo’s camp accused Hoekstra of being an old guard insider who lost his ties to the party’s grass roots. Meanwhile, Karamo’s opponents accused her of sowing division within the party and leading it to financial ruin.
Hoekstra, like Karamo’s predecessor during the 2022 election cycle, received boos as he took the stage.
“It’s obvious, some of you don’t like me. That’s okay. I’m not on the ballot. I’m not looking for your votes. I’m looking forward to putting together the organization that is a winning team. In Michigan we are tired of losing,” Hoekstra told the crowd. “Everyone is welcome to join that team.”
Around 40 minutes away, in Lansing, Michigan Democrats were having their own state nominating convention and rallying to elect their candidates to office.
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