GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Every attendee to the Michigan Republican Party’s official convention Saturday had it emblazoned on the badges that hung around their necks: “Up from the ashes.”
The organization is attempting to unite around former President Donald Trump and move on from deep divisions that have led to an ousted chair, a legal battle, and nearly empty campaign coffers heading into a presidential election year in a pivotal swing state.
It’s unclear whether that optimism will pan out: A rump convention of dissidents to take place in Detroit Saturday was dissolved last-minute after a court ruling. Two other gatherings popped up in its place, as backers of former chair Kristina Karamo – who still claims to be the rightful Michigan GOP party leader – met after being refused credentials to the Grand Rapids convention for missing the registration deadline.
Delegates from those meetings won’t be recognized by the Republican National Committee at its convention in Milwaukee this summer. So some party members from Michigan’s 1st and 4th Congressional districts came to Grand Rapids instead, hoping their votes would count.
After speaking with members of one of those divided districts Saturday, newly-crowned party chair Pete Hoekstra told USA TODAY his message was straightforward.
“Send the message to anybody in your community: If you want to work with us to make Republicans successful in November, the door is open. We want you.”
There’s still a ways to go. Most attendees to Saturday’s convention who spoke with USA TODAY were hopeful the drama is in the past, and most of the caucuses went off without a hitch. But at least one devolved into a screaming match, and some Karamo-camp attendees were denied the chance to vote from their peers who say they hadn’t registered in time. The split isn’t about loyalty to Trump – that much is clear from the former president winning 98% of the delegate’s votes.
Instead, it reflects a different growing pain within the modern GOP: Tension between party stalwarts who have funded, run or won elections in the past, and activists who see them as a cabal set on protecting establishment interests.
“They’ve purged those people” who have experience winning elections, said 3rd District delegate Keary Sawyer, 72, a lawyer from Grand Rapids Township whose father was a congressman and who has been involved in the Michigan GOP for years.
