Dem
51
GOP
49
The Democrats did great in Michigan in 2022. Currently the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and both senators are Democrats. In addition, Democrats control both chambers of the state legislature. The state Republican Party is deeply divided and even more deeply in debt. Under these circumstances, who in their right mind would want to run the state Republican Party? Oddly enough, ten people filed to run for party chair. On Saturday, the delegates to the state convention elected a Black woman, Kristina Karamo, to the job. Who said the Republicans don't like Black women? Of course, she is a right-wing conspiracy theorist and maintains that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. That helps. She also ran for secretary of state in 2022 on a platform of making sure Republicans win all future elections and was crushed by 600,000 votes (14%) but still refuses to concede. In the final round of voting for party chair, Karamo beat Matt DePerno, another election denier, who ran for attorney general in 2022 and was also crushed.
Her job will be to rebuild the state party. She knows that. In her address at the convention she said: "Our party is dying and needs to be rebuilt into a political machine that strikes fear in the hearts of Democrats." Good luck with that.
She's not the only one. Trumpists have taken over the entire state party machinery. This might have something to do with why the Michigan GOP has lost so many elections recently. Who knows? Maybe the big donors know. They have drastically cut back on donations. Tudor Dixon, who ran for governor and was crushed in 2022 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), said that her campaign was hurt by the state party not having much money. Unless Karamo can convince the big state donors to pony up, the Republicans will have a tough time picking up the open Senate seat in 2024 unless they can find a multimillionaire who can self-fund.
Former state representative Aaron Miller (R) said of the election: "The Republican Party is now pretty well cemented as the party of election denying, conspiracy theories, tin hats and supporting Capitol riots. I'll pass." (V)