At unusual Mackinac conference, Michigan GOP chair tells critics to 'pound sand'

MACKINAC ISLAND — The audience rose in a standing ovation Saturday when Michigan Republican Party Chair Kristina Karamo was introduced to deliver a "dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence" before a Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference unlike any other.

An hour later, Karamo stepped to the podium again to tell the conference that Darwin's theory of evolution is a fraud and a hoax and that man was created in his present form by God, but that leftists cling to evolutionary theory because when children are taught that one part of the Bible is false, they are more inclined to also question its other teachings.

The theater in Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel, which seats 800, was nowhere near full, just as it had loads of empty seats on Friday night when Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, this year's marquee speaker, delivered his address.

Those who showed up for the conference, held every other year, appeared mostly unified, among themselves at least, but they gathered in a much smaller tent, raising questions about the party's near-term election prospects.

Republicans lost both the state House and Senate to Democrats in the 2022 election, completing a reversal under which Democrats control all statewide offices, the Legislature and the Michigan Supreme Court, just as Republicans did as recently as 2018.

The party has not announced paid attendance, but it is not expected to be anywhere near the roughly 2,400 registrants the GOP claimed in 2015.

The nationally known speakers of past years, who have included then-Vice President Mike Pence, then-U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, were not to be found this weekend. Instead, attendees heard from Jim Caviezel, an actor who portrayed Jesus in the film "The Passion of the Christ" and claimed he was briefly blacklisted by Hollywood because of his strong Christian beliefs, and Zuby, an English rapper "known for his clean, positive, and inspirational lyrics," according to the conference program.

Past conference sessions on expanding Michigan's economy and diversifying the state GOP were supplanted with ones titled, "What Would our Founding Fathers Think?", "Election Fraud," and, most peculiarly for a Michigan conference, "Globalism in Chile."

Past major corporate sponsors such as AT&T were also not to be found. Instead, a handful of ads in the program touted a Roseville chiropractic center, a Mackinaw City gift store, and a Shelby Township auto repair shop.

When longtime conference attendees ran into each other in the corridors, they could be heard making comments like, "I don't recognize anybody here."

Frequent themes at nearly all the sessions were attacks on scientific elitism and globalism, criticism of electric vehicles as reliant on technology linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and the need to enhance border security and adhere to Christian principles and the Constitution as envisioned by the nation's founders.

Unity was stressed, but in many cases, it was unity by subtraction.

"If you are not a constitutional conservative, you have no business being a Republican," said state Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, who was one of only three Republican state lawmakers to address the conference, as the party's House and Senate leaders stayed away. Friske said that the handful of Republicans in each chamber who voted "yes" on the nearly $82 billion state budget recently signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer should leave the party.

Only two of Michigan's six Republican members of Congress were in attendance, and U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, faced some minor heckling during his session with U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, after Walberg referred to the U.S. as a democracy.

"Constitutional democracy — we're not a democracy," a woman shouted.

"You talk and talk and talk," and "You're not doing anything," were among the other shouts heard from the audience during Saturday's congressional session, as the level of frustration with Washington, D.C. appeared particularly high.

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, was listed on the agenda as a participant in the congressional session, but Walberg said Bergman texted him Saturday to say he had "a big cold" and couldn't make it.

Pete Lund, a former GOP state lawmaker from Macomb County who formerly served as state director of the small government/free market group Americans for Prosperity after leaving the Legislature, attended the conference and said he's not overly concerned about the messaging he heard.

"Different people want to hear and need to hear different things," said Lund, who is now a consultant. "The people up here, this is what they want to hear. I wouldn't go to a synagogue and say, 'Vote Republican because we've got good Christian values,' and I hope they won't do that."

Lund said those attending the conference are those who won control of the party and "they are the party establishment now."

Karamo knows her audience and delivered a message she knew the crowd wanted to hear, he said. But Lund believes different messages can be stressed in other venues and the rhetoric will change enough between the primary and the general election that most Republicans and conservatives will know which candidates to support on Election Day.

Karamo, who took office in February, has faced criticism over alleged interference in the business of county parties and handling of party finances. She said Saturday rumors of her pending resignation are false and her internal detractors can "pound sand."

Mike Brown, a Michigan State Police captain from Stevensville in western Michigan who was a GOP primary candidate for governor last year and is now a member of the Republican state committee, said he is taking a wait-and-see approach about Karamo's leadership.

"It's been a pretty bumpy eight months," Brown said at the conference, but he hopes Karamo is one of those leaders who might take a year to hit her stride. "I'm not sure that she's got a great team together yet."

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: At Mackinac, Michigan GOP chair tells critics to 'pound sand'