The Michigan Republican Party is in the middle of a tug-of-war over its leadership. In the past month, the party has split into two factions.
One is now headed by the former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra. The other is led by Kristina Karamo, who was elected as the GOP chair last year.
There’s been a lot of back and forth in the past month so to unpack it all, WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke with Michigan Capitol reporter Colin Jackson.
Interview Highlights
On how the GOP views the dueling claims of state party leadership
On Wednesday, we saw the Republican National Committee general counsel send a letter to the Hoekstra camp and the Karamo camp, basically saying it appears that Karamo had been properly removed as chair. But it fell short of saying that was a final decision.
On why Karamo lost popularity within her own party
There have been a lot of questions over the party's finances. There's been a lot of questions over transparency with those finances. She's struggled to fundraise, or at least some of her promises for fundraising and getting small donors back on board haven't really played out. And this really took off last year when a report basically detailing all of the issues with Karamo’s handling of finances started going in Republican circles and that caused her to lose a lot of support, I believe.
On what the dispute means for the future of the Michigan GOP
Because as far as legitimacy goes, whoever controls the party's bank accounts basically controls the party. And right now, Karamo’s team controls most of the assets ... I would say the bigger implications are just for the party’s preparedness as far as it gets into election season.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: The Michigan Republican Party is in the middle of a tug-of-war over its leadership. In the past month, the party has split into two factions.
One is now headed by the former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra and the other is led by Kristina Karamo, who was elected as the GOP chair last year.
There’s been a lot of back and forth in the past month, so, to unpack it all, I’m sitting down with Colin Jackson, who covers the Michigan Capitol.
Colin, thanks for joining us.
Colin Jackson: Thanks for having me.
Schellong: So, how is it that Karamo and Hoekstra are both claiming party leadership? What is giving them authority to make that declaration?
Jackson: So really, this comes down to kind of this hyper-technical dispute over the party's rules and whether or not it allowed Karamo’s detractors to have a meeting on January 6, in which a group of state committee members voted to remove her as chair.
Karamo has called that meeting illegitimate, but from there on, her detractors have said Karamo’s no longer the chair.
Meanwhile, Karamo held her own meeting on January 13, with some overlap, but there was also her own supporters on the state committee. And on January 13, those supporters reaffirmed her as chair and voted to remove some of her detractors, including her former co-chair Malinda Pego, who at the time, was serving as interim chair of the breakaway group.
So last weekend on January 20, we had the breakaway group meet and Lansing. And that's when those state committee members voted to make Pete Hoekstra their new chair.
So right now, we have this dispute over which meetings are legitimate, which meetings are not legitimate.
Schellong: How did Karamo lose so much of the state Republican Party's favor? What was she doing that they didn't like?
Jackson: Karamo came into power because she's a very good talker. She connects with the grassroots very well, and she had this promise of kind of restoring purity almost to the Michigan Republican Party, and giving it back to the grassroots giving the party's control back into the grassroots, rather than some of the old guard donor class of leaders. But that hasn't really played out in the same way that a lot of Karamo supporters had wanted.
There have been a lot of questions over the party's finances. There's been a lot of questions over transparency with those finances. She's struggled to fundraise, or at least some of her promises for fundraising and getting small donors back on board haven't really played out. And this really took off last year when a report basically detailing all of the issues with Karamo’s handling of finances started going in Republican circles and that caused her to lose a lot of support, I believe.
Schellong: Gotcha. So she promised a lot and kind of fell short. This schism among Michigan Republicans has prompted legal threats from both sides. Karamo’s team has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the opposing group that created a new state party website. Meanwhile, Hoekstra’s team is responding with a lawsuit to freeze the state's GOP assets. What are you expecting to happen there and is this rift causing other legal implications?
Jackson: I would expect the courts to weigh in and basically give one side what they want: either they enforce Karamo’s cease-and-desist letter on Hoekstra and his team, or the courts agreed to freeze party assets and declare Hoekstra’s team the rightful people in control of the Michigan Republican Party.
Because as far as legitimacy goes, whoever controls the party's bank accounts basically controls the party. And right now, Karamo’s team controls most of the assets.
As far as other legal implications, I wouldn't be sure if there's more necessarily legal implications. I would say the bigger implications are just for the party’s preparedness as far as it gets into election season.
Schellong: Michigan is obviously an important battleground state during this year's elections. And we know that the Republican National Committee is even meeting this coming week in Vegas. How have they been weighing in on this dispute?
Jackson: On Wednesday, we saw the Republican National Committee general counsel send a letter to the Hoekstra camp and the Karamo camp, basically saying it appears that Karamo had been properly removed as chair. But it fell short of saying that was a final decision.
It acknowledged that there's more information that could come out that could change that determination. So as of right now, the RNC isn't formally recognizing Hoekstra nor Karamo as chair.
I think that if the RNC does weigh in, that'll be a big boon for whoever it does weigh in in favor of. The Hoekstra camp has been looking to the RNC for legitimacy for a long time. On Saturday, when I talked to Karamo, she basically said she didn't think the RNC was going to weigh in. So, if it does and weighs in against her, I think that it'll be a detriment for her and her campaign.
Schellong: So what does this tug-of-war between two leaders kind of signal for the future of the state's party?
Jackson: I think right now you're seeing a fight for the direction of the party overall. We've seen Karamo, who has denied election results in the past. She's been very much appealing to the grassroots of the party, but at the same time she has struggled to fundraise. And there have been a lot of attacks on traditional Republicans, you know? Think the DeVos family or other people that have been part of the so-called donor class.
Meanwhile, Pete Hoekstra has a little more establishment behind him, as well as some grassroots bonafides where he served in Congress. He's been part of the Trump administration. At the same time, he believes he has the appeal to the grassroots as well. And he has those connections to donors that Karamo hasn't. And he's promising a message of unity and a winning strategy, where the Republicans no longer attack other Republicans with purity tests, but he's promising a party where Republicans focus on attacking Democrats.
Schellong: That's Colin Jackson. He covers the Michigan Capitol. Thanks.
Jackson: Thank you, Megan.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.