The Michigan Republican Party is falling apart and Biden must be thrilled

The Republican Party in Michigan was once a powerful force to be reckoned with but it's now in disarray following a disastrous year under Kristina Karamo’s leadership as chair of the state GOP. Here’s why she’s now been voted out. 

On January 6th, a group of Michigan Republicans met to vote on whether or not Kristina Karamo would continue as the state’s GOP chair. It was a vote she didn’t win as well as one that came at an especially inopportune moment. 

Michigan’s primary is set to take place February 27th but the Republican state party has been left rudderless as it works to sort out the internal civil war that has plagued it since Karamo was voted in as party leader in February 2023. 

Karamo was a relative newcomer to Michigan politics but her hard-right stance on many political issues and her support of Donald Trump won Karamo the loyalty of Republicans in the state as well as the party chair position after a difficult convention in February 2023. 

If you don’t know much about Karamo, she’s been at the heart of several controversies in Michigan politics too numerous to count but MSNBC’s Steve Benen has provided a great review of the major issues that made headlines in the state. 

“For those who might benefit from a refresher,” explained Benen “in the 2022 elections, Karamo ran for Michigan secretary of state campaign as a notorious election denier.” However, that wasn’t her only negative headline. 

“She was also known for sharing concerns about ‘demonic possession’ — which the Republican said can spread from person to person through intimate relationships,” the MSNBC journalist continued.  

Benen added that Karamo also made the news for spreading January 6th conspiracy theories, rejecting vaccines, and condemning evolutionary biology. Karamo also once suggested living together before marriage could normalize pedophilia.

Despite Karamo’s problematic beliefs, Trump still backed her to become chair of the GOP in Michigan. A move that crushed the party’s ability to raise money and led to a lot of infighting within the Michigan GOP. 

Issues boiled over just nine months after Karamo assumed leadership of the state party when a petition calling for a vote on removal was circulated by state committee member Daniel Lawless in late October 2023 according to the Associated Press (AP).  

“I regret to say that after much thought and reflection, I have become convinced that Kristina Karamo cannot lead us in this effort and it is upon us, the State Committee, to replace her and move our party forward,” Lawless wrote to the AP in an email. 

A CNN investigative report published in late December 2023 revealed that Michigan’s Republican Party only had a net income of $71,000 over Karamo’s nine-month tenure and that the party’s financial issues were so bad that it had accumulated $600,000 in debt.

“If I would have known that Kristina Karamo would have turned out to be such a tyrannically incompetent dumpster fire I would never have worked so hard to get her elected,” wrote state committee member Dawn Beattie according to CNN. 

Karamo was voted out of her position as party chair by roughly 45 members of the 107-member state committee on January 6th. However, Karamo has said that the meeting was “illegitimate” according to The Independent, and still considers herself chair. 

“It was an illegitimate meeting. Their performance has no legal standing,” Ms. Karamo said. “I am still chair of the Michigan Republican Party,” Karamo said in a statement quoted by the New York Times, though the damage she caused may be too late to reverse. 

Michigan is one of several key battleground states and without a war chest to help raise awareness and campaign for candidates statewide, it may be difficult for Republicans to attract the attention they’ll need to break the state for the GOP in 2024.