Insider: How Trump’s campaign recruited sheriffs for Michigan immigration event

All 83 Michigan sheriffs received an invitation to participate in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s April 2 press conference in Grand Rapids on immigration, according to emails obtained by The Detroit News through an open records request.

On March 29, Paul Cordes, a Republican political consultant who has worked with the Michigan GOP, sent an email to the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association about the event.

“We would like to invite elected sheriffs who support President Trump, especially in his efforts to combat the border crisis and the crime that is coming with it,” Cordes wrote.

A day later, on March 30, Matthew Saxton, executive director of the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association, forward the Cordes message to the state’s sheriffs.

“I have been asked to pass this invitation on to the 83 sheriffs of Michigan,” Saxton wrote. “The invitation is to meet with presidential candidate Donald Trump to discuss border security. I pass this invite along just as I would pass an invite from either candidate to discuss the safety and security of Michigan.”

Saxton told sheriffs interested in participating to contact Cordes. The Michigan Sheriffs’ Association didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On April 2, about a dozen Michigan sheriffs either took part in a discussion about immigration policy with Trump or stood behind him as he discussed the topic inside a Grand Rapids convention center.

During the event, Trump argued that a spike in crossings at the southern border was “country changing” and defended his use of the word “animals” to describe illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes.

Hillsdale County Sheriff Scott Hodshire was among the sheriffs who participated.

“I will be attending,” Hodshire wrote to Cordes on April 1. “Thank you for this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet with the president of the United States.”

The Detroit News obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to Hodshire’s office.

CLF makes Mich. ad reservations

The Congressional Leadership Fund super political action committee, which is endorsed by House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP leadership, announced last week it made nearly $12 million in reservations for television, streaming and digital platforms in Michigan markets ahead of the fall election.

The reservations are part of $141 million in initial reservations made across 37 media markets. But one Michigan market was missing from the list ― Grand Rapids, where Republicans are targeting the swing district held by first-term U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids.

CLF reserved $5.1 million in Detroit, where freshman Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, will be defending his turf in the 10th District that covers southern Macomb County, Rochester and Rochester Hills.

The group also reserved $4.5 million in Lansing, where GOP former state Sens. Tom Barrett of Charlotte and Democrat Curtis Hertel of East Lansing are expected to battle it out for the 7th District seat held by Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Holly Democrat who is running for the Senate.

CLF also reserved $2.3 million in the Flint market, where another competitive seat is going to be up for grabs with U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, retiring and leaving crowded primaries on both sides of the aisle.

On the lack of spending in Grand Rapids, the CLF indicated this reservation buy represents just the initial reserve, with more possible spending to be added throughout the cycle as races progress.

“This is a significant early down payment on Republicans holding the House Majority,” CLF President Dan Conston said in a statement.

Benson book out in 2025

Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced Wednesday on social media that her book “The Purposeful Warrior: Standing up for Yourself and Your Country” will be released in early 2025 by The Open Field imprint at Penguin Random House.

“It’s both a firsthand account of what it was like to have a front row seat to a nationally coordinated effort to undo the fair and legitimate results of a presidential election, and an empowering roadmap for how we, in these divisive, uncertain times, can channel our fears and frustrations into fighting as warriors on behalf of ourselves and our community,” Benson said.

The announcement comes a few months after Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced she’d also written a book, “True Gretch.”

Trump endorses in Supreme Court race

Former President Donald Trump is diving into the Michigan Supreme Court race.

The Republican presidential candidate last Sunday posted on Truth Social his endorsement of Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra for one of two open seats on the high court.

Trump called Boonstra a “brilliant and highly respected patriot.”

“As your next justice, Mark will fight tirelessly to uphold the constitution, restore law and order, protect our always under siege Second Amendment, stop lawfare from interfering with our elections, and ensure liberty and justice for all,” Trump wrote.

On his campaign website, Boonstra said he was “humbled” by the former president’s support.

“He knows that the Supreme Court is not a place to start a judicial career, and stressed the importance of my experience on the Michigan Court of Appeals,” he wrote.

Michigan state Rep. Andrew Fink, R-Hillsdale, also is running for the Republican nomination for a Michigan Supreme Court seat. Both Boonstra and Fink are running to fill a full eight-year term left up for grabs with the impending retirement of Republican-nominated Justice David Viviano.

Branch County Judge Patrick William O’Grady and attorney Alexandria Taylor are both running for the Republican nomination to fill a partial four-year term on the high court left unfinished when former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, a Democratic-nominated justice, left the bench in late 2022.

Justice Kyra Harris Bolden is running for the Democratic nomination to win the four-year term. She was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in January 2023 to serve out the last two years of McCormack’s first half of her eight-year term.

University of Michigan law professor Kimberly Thomas is running for the Democratic nomination to fill Viviano’s seat for an eight-year term.

Wilkins tapped for White House council

Donele Wilkins, CEO of the nonprofit Green Door Initiative in Detroit, was appointed by President Joe Biden among 12 others to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, a committee that provides independent advice and recommendations on how to address environmental injustice.

Wilkins’ Green Door Initiative promotes environmental justice in Michigan through green job workforce training and community organizing, according to the White House.

“The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s advice and recommendations are crucial to our efforts to advance President Biden’s bold environmental justice agenda and ensure that the lived experiences of communities are reflected in everything we do,” White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory said in a statement.

Slotkin’s tough-on-China push

A week after the Biden administration slapped steep new tariffs on a bevy of Chinese automotive goods and announced plans to unveil restrictions on internet-connected cars from China, Rep. Elissa Slotkin moved to limit military use of technology from the United States’ chief geopolitical rival.

The Democratic representative from Holly, also a former Central Intelligence Agency officer and Pentagon official, said in a press release that she has packed 40 provisions into the latest draft of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

Two of those provisions directly target China by banning Chinese internet-connected vehicles on U.S. military bases and prohibiting the military from purchasing Chinese-made LiDAR.

LiDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging, is a technology that uses sensors to gather real-time information from around a vehicle. It is often used in the development of autonomous driving systems.

The NDAA passed the House Armed Services Committee by a vote of 57-1 with overwhelming bipartisan support. U.S. Republican Reps. General Jack Bergman of Watersmeet and Lisa McClain of Bruce Township also voted in favor of the bill, which still needs to pass the full House and Senate chambers.

As election year rhetoric ramps up, it has become clear that Democrats and Republicans alike see tough-on-China stances as something that resonates with voters. Slotkin has worked to boost her bonafides on that front over the past month.

“While we’re always going to be watching things like planes and tanks and military equipment that another country has, I think the future of warfare is more and more going to be metered out through control of data and a lot of data,” she told The Detroit News.

“Imagine a fleet of Chinese-connected vehicles driving around the United States, driving around our military bases, driving in and around our major infrastructure sites,” Slotkin added. “Think water systems, electrical sites, being able to geo-locate where specific Americans are on the road, know where senior leaders might be at any given time.

“To me,” she said, “that just poses a real national security threat.”

Slotkin also gave a House floor speech about the national security risks of high-technology Chinese vehicles and sat in the first row — along with several Democratic Michigan lawmakers — during a White House Rose Garden event unveiling the new China tariffs.

Tweet of the week

The Insider report’s “Tweet of the Week,” recognizing a social media post that was worthy of attention or, possibly, just a laugh, from the previous week goes to Rep. Kelly Breen, D-Novi.

There were multiple strong contenders for the honor this past week coming out of a Michigan House Judiciary Committee on bills that would strengthen penalties for drivers who injure a blind pedestrian carrying a cane or using a dog guide or walker.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

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