Republicans are pushing for the removal of Kristina Karamo, an election-denying activist who rose to lead the state party this year, amid mounting financial problems and persistent infighting.
Republicans are pushing for the removal of Kristina Karamo, an election-denying activist who rose to lead the state party this year, amid mounting financial problems and persistent infighting.
The mutiny took hold on Mackinac Island.
The Michigan Republican Party’s revered two-day policy and politics gathering, the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, was an utter mess.
Attendance had plummeted. Top-tier presidential candidates skipped the September event, and some speakers didn’t show. Guests were baffled by a scoring system that rated their ideology on a scale, from a true conservative to a so-called RINO, or Republican in name only.
And the state party, already deeply in debt, had taken out a $110,000 loan to pay the keynote speaker, Jim Caviezel, an actor who has built an ardent following among the far right after starring in a hit movie this summer about child sex trafficking. The loan came from a trust tied to the wife of the party’s executive director, according to party records.
For some Michigan Republicans, it was the final straw for a chaotic state party leadership that has been plagued by mounting financial problems, lackluster fund-raising, secretive meetings and persistent infighting. Blame has centered on the fiery chairwoman, Kristina Karamo, who skyrocketed to the top of the state party through a combative brand of election denialism but has failed to make good on her promises for new fund-raising sources and armies of activists.
The GOP is in civil war. A lot of it gets missed because much of it is at the local level. Fights between "constitutional" Republican (the crazies) and the regular Republicans (the less crazy) have been breaking out in places like the Sumner County, TN commission, and at state levels in places like AZ and MI. We are even seeing it in the House of Representatives to some degree.
As I like to say, "In some of these places they ran out of democrats "
"Establishment" Republicans are still fascists if they're still around.
My dad was a life long republican, but he jumped ship in 2016 and hasn't looked back. Votes D across the board even though he hates it. That's what any real "fiscal conservative" should have done. The writing was on the wall, plain as day, and anyone still around has chosen to look past all the blatant corruption and fascism.
GOP knew taking the TEA party into their ranks 10 years ago and every other extremist group and ideology based on hate and fear mongering was going to burn them before their careers were done, they just didn't have an escape plan on how to drop the losers when it was going to become obvious the moderates and independents stopped voting for their assinine causes.
They were warned loudly years ago this was going to happen but their can't see past the next election so they didn't care then and they still don't care now of they come out of the next cycle of elections with any power in tact. Lucky for them GOP voters will vote anything with (R) by its name, something the Democrats don't have quite so many willfully ignorant morons around to fill out their strategy with.
They have to back trump because if they don’t he’ll call them childish names on the internet. As alpha males do. So basically they’re pussys and cowards.
You know, I might not agree with constitutional Republicans, but I can at least respect the thought process. I hope to at least see one on TV some day, they must be drinking with bigfoot and nessy.
And the state party, already deeply in debt, had taken out a $110,000 loan to pay the keynote speaker, Jim Caviezel, an actor who has built an ardent following among the far right after starring in a hit movie this summer about child sex trafficking.
For some Michigan Republicans, it was the final straw for a chaotic state party leadership that has been plagued by mounting financial problems, lackluster fund-raising, secretive meetings and persistent infighting.
Blame has centered on the fiery chairwoman, Kristina Karamo, who skyrocketed to the top of the state party through a combative brand of election denialism but has failed to make good on her promises for new fund-raising sources and armies of activists.
Once dominated largely by moneyed establishment donors and their allies, many state parties have been taken over by grass-roots Republican activists energized by former President Donald J. Trump and his broadsides against the legitimacy of elections.
Veterans of Republican politics say that state parties play vital roles in winning elections, acting as a clearinghouse for distributing large donations from national groups unfamiliar with local terrain and offering discounts on expensive campaign costs like mail.
Mark Forton, the chair of the Macomb County Republican Party, who had been a key force in Ms. Karamo’s rise, called in late November for “a complete change in leadership” in a letter to the state committee that was obtained by The Times.
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