There have been plenty of headlines in recent weeks announcing that, when it comes to the 2024 election, Democrats have a problem in the state of Michigan. Without question, President Joe Biden has some real work ahead of him in the state, particularly as it concerns the state’s Arab-American vote. But there’s another side to the Michigan story, one that’s gone largely overlooked.
For all the issues Democrats are facing, the Michigan Republican Party appears to be collapsing in on itself — like a souffle, or a hot air balloon rapidly losing helium. Something highly collapsible.
Not one, but two consecutive meetings of the Michigan Republican Party broke out into physical altercations, one of which involved testicle-kicking, chair-slamming, and a broken rib.
It all started last year, when Michigan Republicans chose Kristina Karamo to be the new head of the Michigan State Republican Party. Karamo was a vocal election denier who had just lost the race for Michigan Secretary of State and never conceded. Connection? Possibly.
But Michigan Republicans decided to put Karamo in charge of their party anyway. And then they immediately started fighting about it — literally. That spring, not one, but two consecutive meetings of the Michigan Republican Party broke out into physical altercations, one of which involved testicle-kicking, chair-slamming, and a broken rib. (If you have never been to a meeting of the Michigan Republican Party, this is not usually what happens).
After Karamo’s first year as chair, the state’s Republican Party was in dire financial straits, which led to accusations that Karamo misused party funds. In January, a faction of the party voted to oust Karamo and elected a new party chair. The only problem was that Karamo is an election denier — and election deniers do not admit defeat or concede power. That’s kind of their whole schtick.
So began the Michigan Republican Party’s civil war.
Karamo refused to accept that she was legitimately ousted, and Michigan Republicans ended up with two competing official Republican Party websites, both declaring a different person to be the party’s official chair. Last week, the national Republican Party stepped in and officially recognized the new chair over Karamo. But Karamo is still not admitting defeat. (Again, that’s the thing about election deniers!)
Karamo called the National Republican Party’s endorsement of the new chair, “sabotage” and “discriminatory.” She called the Republicans who voted to oust her an “impostor organization fraudulently claiming to be the Michigan Republican Party.” And she has not exactly been doing this from the sidelines: In addition to the party’s social media accounts, Karamo reportedly still has control of the party’s “bank accounts and assets.”
Because this civil war has dragged on for so long, this is all now about to interfere with the upcoming Republican primary. To be clear, this was already a confusing year in Michigan Republican politics: because of some complicated calendar shenanigans, Michigan is holding both a Republican primary and a Republican “caucus convention” this year. The primary is set to take place on February 27th and the “caucus convention” is set to take place four days later, on March 2nd.
If you’re wondering what a “caucus convention” is, you can think of it sort of like the Iowa caucuses, but instead of having caucus sites all across the state, the whole thing will be held in one place. Or at least that was supposed to be how it worked. But now, the two factions of the Michigan Republican Party are holding two separate caucus conventions in two separate cities — with each one claiming to be the official Republican caucus.
So that means there will be one Republican Primary and two Republican caucus conventions this year. Which is a whole lot of nominating contests for one party in one state. But hey, why not? It’s not like Michigan will be an important battleground state this year and Republicans really need to have all their ducks in a row. Wait a second…
