MI GOP shifts course, only Hillsdale’s ‘America First’ delegates will attend GOP convention

HILLSDALE — The Michigan GOP Credentials Committee has shifted course from its own decision earlier this week splitting delegates to the state convention Feb. 17-18 in Lansing between Hillsdale’s America First Republicans and the Leininger faction in the ongoing saga of the Hillsdale County Republican Party.

In an updated statement issued late this week, the committee said it reconvened after the Feb. 7 deadline passed and considered additional information presented that showed that America First Republican Chair David Mosby Jr.’s call to convention in December 2022 met criteria to be considered valid as former Chair Daren Wiseley had resigned.

With this information, the committee recognized Mosby’s delegate and alternate submission to the Feb. 17-18 convention in Lansing, removing any of Leininger’s submitted delegates and alternates from attendance.

The new statement was somewhat contradictory, however, in that it specified the decision does not affect the party’s position on recognizing Brent Leininger as the chair of the Hillsdale County Republican Party. Michigan GOP Chair Ron Weiser sided with Leininger’s faction Dec. 28, reversing his own earlier decision from August where he sided with the America First Republicans.

The Credentialing Committee’s decision and then reversal this week followed a lengthy court hearing Feb. 2 where Jonathan Lauderbach, an attorney retained by the Leininger faction, tried to rush through a temporary restraining order that would have restricted many of the America First Republican’s new leadership from attending the Michigan GOP convention Feb. 17-18.

The judge in the case, Michael Olsaver, ultimately declined to issue the TRO, stating in a two page ruling the Michigan GOP should have a chance to handle the rift between Hillsdale’s America First Republicans and the Leininger faction administratively, but reserving the right for the issue to be brought back before the court.

More:MIGOP chair sides with Leininger faction in local party rift

It is unknown if the Leininger faction will many any attempts to bring the issue back before Olsaver prior to the Feb. 17-18 Michigan GOP convention, which many believe will be contentious at best as the America First Republicans in Hillsdale County attempt to reestablish their legitimacy in the Hillsdale County Republican Party despite Weiser’s Dec. 28 ruling.

The rift between the two factions became evident Aug. 11, 2022, when Leininger’s faction and dozens of newly elected precinct delegates from the Aug. 2, 2022, primary election were barred from entering the county convention held at Sozo Church. Leininger’s faction held a competing convention in a nearby parking lot and selected their own slate of delegates to the state’s August 2022 convention and they were ultimately recognized and seated as Hillsdale County’s representatives.

On Aug. 25, days before the Michigan GOP fall convention, Leininger’s faction convened its own meeting and elected a temporary executive committee to serve through the end of the year, ousting Wiseley and the America First Republicans, who dismissed the Leininger faction’s actions that day as unlawful.

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Infighting has grown since then although Leininger’s faction includes the majority of Hillsdale County’s elected Republican precinct delegates.

The America First Republicans contend that a concerted effort was made to disqualify a number of their own precinct delegate nominees prior to the Aug. 2, primary election for various reasons by Hillsdale County Clerk Marny Kast and her staff.

Jon Smith, the now former HCRP secretary, said the rift could be decided on the floor during the Feb. 17-18 convention and ultimately by the Michigan GOP’s own new leadership, who will be elected during the convention.

— Corey Murray is the Public Safety Reporter for The Hillsdale Daily News, Sturgis Journal and The Daily Reporter. Contact him by email at cmurray@hillsdale.net or follow him on Twitter: @cmurrayHDN.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: MI GOP shifts course, only Hillsdale’s ‘America First’ delegates will attend GOP convention