A look at internal divisions within a state party.
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The differences among Michigan Republicans reflect both style and substance. As the party prepares for a June 25 visit from the former president to suburban Detroit, the most active Republicans here broadly embrace Trump’s “America First” maxim but don’t always agree on what that phrase means. Many remain skeptical of the 2020 election results but differ on whether to continue to focus on the issue. They disparage the party’s old guard but often fight over who they consider to be part of the establishment.
The situation has led to mutual suspicion and attempts to oust one another from the party. Those efforts in turn have sparked accusations and counteraccusations that some members are trying to rig party elections.
“There’s no one in control anymore,” said GOP consultant Jason Cabel Roe.
Michigan has played an outsize role in Republican politics dating to the party’s founding nearly 170 years ago. President Gerald Ford came from Grand Rapids in western Michigan. Two of the state’s most politically powerful families, the Romneys and the DeVoses, have made an imprint on national politics for generations. Ronna McDaniel became chairwoman of the Republican National Committee after leading the Michigan party.
In 2016, Michigan voters for the first time in 28 years chose a Republican for president, helping propel Trump to a surprise victory. But since then, Republicans have been on a losing streak that has resulted in Democrats gaining full control of the statehouse for the first time in four decades.
Some longtime Republicans say the state party’s campaign troubles can be surmounted by handing more duties to the RNC or other entities. But they worry the fractures mean a segment of Republicans will lurch so far right that they will repel independent voters and make it impossible to win statewide elections.
After Trump’s victory in 2016, his ardent supporters became active in the Republican Party in Michigan and soon overtook it, said Roe, who served as the party’s executive director for part of 2021. They continue to push people out of the party whom they deem suspect, he said.
“They basically see anyone who has been there as part of the problem and a RINO,” or Republican in name only, he said. “I think there’s been a systemic effort to eradicate people that have been involved for many years, and they’re being replaced by MAGA-aligned folks that have not been involved and engaged that don’t necessarily understand how the process works.”
Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, said the latest purity tests are emerging even within the “Make America Great Again” movement just as the party weighs whether to re-nominate Trump or choose someone else.
