Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference reflects vastly changed Michigan GOP

A swift kick to the crotch didn’t bring down the Michigan Republican Party, but it certainly didn’t help.

It was the second physical altercation at a GOP event this year and came at another closed-door meeting of the MRP’s state committee amid more warring factions, more secrecy and more disagreement about the party’s direction.

The state of the party — and how it continues to change — will be top of mind this weekend as Republicans gather for a slimmed-down and revamped Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in what is seen as a major test for Kristina Karamo, the controversial party chair elected to the top post in February.

The conference is an event the GOP has held every other year at Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel since the 1940s and in recent years it has featured speakers such as former Vice President Mike Pence (who was sitting VP at the time), U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Conference registration peaked at close to 2,400 in 2015. Then, the party was at a high point. It supported Republicans who controlled the state House and Senate, along with the three biggest state offices: governor, attorney general and secretary of state. And, the brightest feather in its cap: It was heading into a 2016 election in which it would deliver Michigan to a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in decades.

The 2023 party is a shell of that one. It’s beleaguered by infighting, staff changes, lackluster fundraising, a leader who routinely takes unorthodox positions, former stars under criminal investigation and a hairy plot to seize the election for Trump that resulted in criminal charges for the party’s entire slate of would-be 2020 electors.

Those changes will be reflected at Mackinac. Registration numbers have not been disclosed, but many longtime former donors and attendees, as well as most state Republican legislative leaders, don't plan to attend. The only politicians scheduled to speak with anything approaching a national profile are Vivek Ramaswamy, the upstart GOP presidential candidate from Ohio, and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Party activists on all sides of the spectrum, from longtime stalwarts to grassroots activists, have largely moved on from asking whether the party is broken.

Instead, a new question has emerged: Does it matter?

Wins hard to come by

Michigan Republicans’ 2022 losses were notable even in a year where Republicans lost nationally. Gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon won the primary after many candidates failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Former President Donald Trump influenced the selection of candidates Matt DePerno for attorney general and Karamo for secretary of state.

Both lost by wide margins and Karamo, who also denied President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020, has never conceded her own 14-point loss in the race.

Susy Avery, a former state party chair, said the Michigan GOP has a big role in terms of coordinating with campaigns and candidates in terms of scheduling, news coverage, messaging and literature drops, not to mention arranging for poll watchers on Election Day. “There are just various things that individual candidates aren’t in a position to fulfill.”

“That’s why people are very concerned. They don’t seem to be raising money and they don’t seem to be making the tent bigger to help (attract) independents,” she said. “I understand these new people have great passion and a lot of policy things they want to bring forward — the problem is they are not unified and coordinated.”

As far as being an effective operation at helping get Republicans elected, Republican communications consultant John Truscott said: “The party as it functions right now is completely irrelevant.

“The Michigan GOP used to have winning campaigns as a primary focus. You can’t make policy or accomplish anything if you don’t win,” he said. “The current party doesn’t seem to focus on or even know how to win.”

The party’s next test will come in 2024, when it would typically pitch in on state House races, congressional races, a coveted U.S. Senate race, and of course, the presidential contest. Instead, the infrastructure is building up outside of that traditional party apparatus.

Traditional, grassroots Republicans focus outside the party

The House Republican Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm of the House Republican caucus, made waves this spring by bringing in some gravitas: Former Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican businessman Bill Parfet would lead fundraising for the group.

Snyder and Parfet are the exact kind of Republicans grassroots activists reject — in a world where party members hold one another to hard lines, Snyder endorsed Biden in 2020 and Parfet was in a group of Republicans who supported Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Karamo, who did not respond to interview requests from the Free Press for this article, told MLive at the time the choices were “horrific” and “disturbing.”

Snyder — his trademark “relentless positive action” on display — didn’t bristle when asked about Karamo’s reaction, and doesn’t see his work as circumventing the party, since HRCC has long existed.

“Well, the way I view it is, I'm focused in on helping win the House back for the Republicans. And I'm a proud Republican,” Snyder said in an interview with the Free Press. “With respect to any other group, they have to make their own decisions. So, I'm not getting involved with the Republican party organization itself. … Right now, it’s just important to win the House back in Michigan.”

He sees that importance as being based in policy — in their first half-year in charge, Democrats have rolled back a number of Republican priorities he and others fought for.

“If you look at the policies that have happened since the beginning of the year, I think it's much more challenging for businesses in Michigan to want to come here and grow here. The state is actually declining in population again. And so, I think it's important to have a strong Republican voice and that can be echoed through winning the House back next year,” Snyder said.

Between April 21 and July 20, the latest reporting period, the HRCC raised a record-breaking $1 million, and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee raised $673,906. The Michigan Republican Party took in $288,000 in its last reporting period, which ran from April 1 to June 30. Some of that was not donations, but fees people paid to attend the Mackinac conference.

Meanwhile, just as some large donors are working around the state party by focusing their financial giving on legislative political action committees or individual candidates, at least one of the party’s far-right activists says he doesn’t feel he needs the party either.

Randy “Trucker Randy” Bishop, an Antrim County Trump supporter and party activist who hosts a radio program and chaired the county party from 2012 to 2018, said he supports Karamo “1,000%,” but believes she faces continued resistance because of party leaders being manipulated by the DeVos family and other members of the donor class.

More: Michigan GOP pays $100K to Grand Hotel as Mackinac conference gets green light

Grassroots conservatives around the state, like him, are focused on building up the county parties, where he said membership and donations are increasing. He said activists are targeting county commissioners, school board members, and sheriffs for removal, especially Up North, where he said many Democrats run as Republicans.

“The state party is basically a nonfunctioning entity,” Bishop said.

“We’re taking back our state. We don’t give two craps about the state party.”

Fractures within party aren’t clean

In 2016 and 2020, there was a clear line between different party factions, and his name was Trump. As the next election season approaches, Trump could wind up on Michigan ballots once again, but he’s no longer the predominant force driving a wedge between state party members.

Trump endorsed a different candidate for chair: DePerno, the failed attorney general candidate who is now under indictment for allegedly tampering with voting machines in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Instead, Karamo, also an ardent Trump supporter who denied his 2020 loss and had previously earned his endorsement for secretary of state, took the prize.

Scott Greenlee, an Ingham County precinct delegate and longtime party fundraiser and activist who was a 2023 candidate for state party chair and has long supported Trump, said support for Karamo has slipped since her February election.

Greenlee saw his candidacy as someone with experience in political party management who was a potential bridge between more mainstream elements of the party and the activists who have transformed the party over the last several years.

The main problem he sees is that the current leadership wants to enforce an ideological purity that is not practical or helpful, he said. Unless someone embraces the platform 100%, they can be labeled a RINO (Republican in Name Only), Greenlee said.

David Dudenhoefer, a former state committee member who was GOP chair of the 13th Congressional District in the Detroit area from 2013 to 2021, said the sentiments he is hearing from party activists are a “mixed bag,” with satisfaction about some actions by the state party and concerns about others.

Dudenhoefer, who has moved to Metamora, said he thinks much of the conflict is related to big party donors being accustomed to running the show and no longer being able to do so.

He said grassroots activists for years put up their candidates for various positions and typically lost to the party establishment choices, who were better-funded.

“We were always told, 'Well, that candidate won; time to fall in line now.'”

Since then, grassroots activists have found ways to win with less money, he said.

“And now the donors have just said, ‘Ah, the hell with it.’ What happened to unity?”

Party struggles for footing on its future

Insiders from both grassroots conservative movements and traditional Republican roots say there’s no alternate or shadow party forming. But a quiet patchwork of donors and activists are making their plans for 2024 without relying on the help the Michigan Republican Party would typically provide.

Longtime Republican political consultant Stu Sandler said, “It doesn’t have to be that complicated” — organizations like the National Republican Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and National House Republican Committee already have some overlap with what the party does.

“I think Michigan could be won by a Republican, I think both in the presidential and in the Senate race you can win, but you just have to have alternative organizations step up.”

Dan Wholihan, a political consultant, lawyer and chairman of the 7th Congressional District Republican Committee, said shortly after the reports of the fighting in Clare that the state committee “needs to stop infighting and get to work.”

He said the problems aren’t “any one person’s fault” but that members of the state party’s inner circle need to keep their squabbling behind closed doors.

“The biggest problem is people who can’t keep their traps shut. Every grievance is public; everything goes onto the internet. … No one goes into a room and talks things out,” he said. “It’s all attacks and no discussion.”

Wholihan — who will have a role in what is likely to be a very competitive race for the open 7th Congressional District seat next year — said there is time to pull things together but acknowledged it’s been tough for the state party to raise money.

“With the big donors, a lot of them are tired of seeing drama,” he said.

Detroit Free Press staff writer Arpan Lobo contributed to this report.

Emily Lawler is the state government and politics editor for the Detroit Free Press. Reach her at elawler@freepress.com or on Twitter/X @emilyjanelawler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mackinac conference reflects vastly changed Michigan Republican Party