After a bitter, months-long dispute in Michigan over who has a legitimate claim to lead the GOP in the critical battleground state, the Republican National Committee said Wednesday that it has formally recognized Pete Hoekstra as the state party’s rightful chairman.
The decision follows a vote by some party officials in Michigan on Jan. 6 to remove Kristina Karamo, a far-right election denier who led the party for nearly a year.
Mr. Hoekstra was elected to office later that month and was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump. But Ms. Karamo refused to accept her removal, sparking a dispute that roiled Republicans and spilled into court just weeks before the party’s presidential primary and convention caucus there.
Critics of Ms. Karamo said that under her leadership the Michigan party had been shrouded in secrecy and was struggling with funds. In choosing Mr. Hoekstra, they appointed a former longtime member of the House of Representatives who was Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands.
Mr. Hoekstra said in an interview that he hoped Ms. Karamo would now resign.
“So now you have the state committee,” he said when told of the RNC’s decision Wednesday. “You have the RNC and you have the president, which alone would have been enough in many cases. If you put it all together cumulatively, it’s like, OK, this decision has been made. Let us continue.”
Ms. Karamo did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
In a conference call on Monday, the RNC heard arguments from lawyers for Mr. Hoekstra and Ms. Karamo. In an email the same day, Ms. Karamo questioned the national Republicans’ decision-making authority on the matter.
She described the faction that voted to replace her as “a fraud organization fraudulently claiming to be the Michigan Republican Party.” She said the state party was “ready to take appropriate steps” to protect the rights of its leaders.
Ms. Karamo has been a lightning rod for the party’s rival factions in the state since Michigan Republicans selected her as their candidate for secretary of state in 2022 – a race she lost by 14 percentage points but refused to concede defeat.
She promised that she would heal the party and bring it back to electoral success after two cycles of defeat. The state swung from Mr. Trump in the 2016 election to Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2020 election, and Democrats captured the state’s top offices and flipped the legislature in the 2022 midterm elections.
But when last fall’s state party convention on Mackinac Island revealed its shortcomings – attendance plummeted, presidential candidates skipped the event, some speakers failed to show up – mutiny broke out.
Lawyers for the RNC wrote in late January that it appeared Ms. Karamo had been “duly removed as chair” but did not recognize Mr. Hoekstra as chair in what they called an initial review.
Afterward, both Ms. Karamo and Mr. Hoekstra appeared at a meeting of Republican Party leaders from across the country in Las Vegas. Neither was officially recognized.
Mr. Hoekstra has since moved forward with planning two fundraising dinners for the state party in late February, before Michigan holds its nominating contests. For her part, Ms. Karamo has been sending messages through the State party’s email account in recent days, claiming that everything is business as usual for her.
Mr. Trump, the overwhelming Republican front-runner for president, is traveling to Michigan on Saturday for a campaign event.
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2024-02-15 02:41:44
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