Michigan GOP holds its presidential caucuses amid intraparty chaos

Source: NBC News

March 2, 2024, 8:00 AM EST


GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Chaos and confusion threaten to upstage Michigan Republicans on Saturday as they determine how to award delegates to former President Donald Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. An ugly leadership dispute is fueling the disarray.

Pete Hoekstra, who has the Republican National Committee’s blessing to chair the Michigan GOP, will preside over one convention set to kick off here at 10 a.m. Kristina Karamo, the deposed and defiant former state party chair, had planned to convene at the same time in Detroit. Meanwhile, GOP groups representing two of Michigan’s 13 congressional districts announced plans to hold their own conventions elsewhere this weekend.

Two party operatives aligned with Karamo, Jim Copas and Ann Clark, told NBC News on Friday that it was their understanding that Karamo’s convention was off. Karamo, in a post on X, encouraged her supporters to “keep fighting” and go “where your district chair recommends.” And talk of rogue and rival mini-conventions rattled around local GOP circles mere hours before would-be delegates had to decide which convention to attend Saturday morning.

“Delegates have been getting conflicting and confusing emails for weeks — promoting different agendas, different staff, different conventions,” Jason Cabel Roe, a veteran Republican strategist in Michigan, said. “You have to pay close attention to even know who is sending what and what the legitimate directions and events are.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/michigan-republican-caucus-trump-haley-win-rcna140418