Karamo ejected from convention as divisions persist in Michigan Republican Party

FLINT — Michigan Republicans activists are united behind former President Donald Trump, but other strong divisions persist, a Saturday state party convention in Flint made clear.

The party selected its two candidates for the Michigan Supreme Court early Saturday evening, but voting and counting was continuing for university boards and the State Board of Education.

The former party chair, Kristina Karamo, who was ousted by party dissidents in January after less than a year in office, showed up at the Dort Financial Center and was soon escorted out of the building by security and local police. “Corruption,” Karamo said as she exited.

Former ambassador and congressman Pete Hoekstra, who was elected to replace Karamo two weeks after the vote to remove her and who has since worked to improve the party’s shaky finances, was greeted with scattered but loud boos when he took the stage to address the convention.

The convention, attended by about 4,000 delegates, alternates, and guests, elected candidates for the Michigan Supreme Court, university boards, and the State Board of Education. The convention’s work was delayed by laborious hand counting — and in some cases recounting — of ballots, and a lengthy dispute over delegate credentials that stems from rival groups claiming to be the legitimate leaders of the Kalamazoo County Republican Party. A similar party leadership dispute exists in Saginaw County, where County Clerk Vanessa Guerra, a Democrat, said recently she has recognized both groups and allowed each to name election challenges and poll watchers for the August primary.

Hoekstra, a former west Michigan congressman who served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands under Trump, said Saturday he’s not troubled by the ongoing discord.

“You’re always going to have an element of dissent,” Hoekstra said. “I can tell you that group’s a whole lot smaller than it was five months ago.”

Hoekstra said as long as the party is united behind Trump and former congressman Mike Rogers, who is seeking the open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan — “and they are,” he said — then, “they don’t have to like me.”

Karamo was not elected as a delegate to the convention but was granted an “all access pass” in error, Hoekstra said, before she walked onto the convention floor and was surrounded by a group of supporters. Officials offered Karamo a guest pass that would have allowed her to watch from seats surrounding the floor, but she declined, he said. That’s why she was escorted out, as was one other unidentified person, Hoekstra said.

Karamo said she was there to support a candidate and was not causing any disruption.

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The convention began making news Friday night when controversial Kalamazoo County attorney Matthew DePerno, who was defeated for state attorney general in 2022 and awaits trial on felony charges related to alleged tampering with election machines, withdrew from consideration for a Michigan Supreme Court nomination and threw his support to Branch County Circuit Judge Patrick O’Grady.

Michigan Supreme Court justices are elected on the nonpartisan portion of the ballot, but they are nominated by the two major political parties. Republican nominees would have to win both seats to reverse the 4-3 edge that Democratic nominees now hold on the court.

That is seen as a tough challenge, since the Democratic nominee, Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, will have the advantage of an incumbency designation for the partial term, and since both Democratic nominees have raised far more money for their campaigns than any of the Republican contenders.

For the full eight-year term on the state’s highest court, filling the seat being vacated by Justice David Viviano, state Rep. Andrew Fink defeated Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra, despite Boonstra’s endorsement from Trump. Viviano, a Republican nominee, announced in March he would not seek another term. The Democratic nominee for the seat is attorney Kimberly Thomas.

Bolden and Thomas have raised $1.1 million and just over $826,000 respectively, and each has cash on hand that is more than five times what all the Republican nominees have raised — combined. Only Fink had reached six figures in fund-raising when pre-convention reports were filed, with just over $100,000 raised.

Fink, a Hillsdale Republican, is completing his second two-year term in the state House, where he serves as minority vice-chair of the House Judiciary Committee. The former U.S. Marine has a 2010 law degree from U-M.

After DePerno’s withdrawal, there were two contenders for a partial, four-year term on the court. There, Branch County Circuit Judge Patrick O’Grady defeated Alexandria Taylor, a Detroit attorney.

O’Grady was elected to the 15th Circuit Court in 2008 and has served there as chief judge several times. The former member of the U.S. Army Reserve has a 1999 law degree from Thomas Cooley Law School.

DePerno, who was the unsuccessful GOP candidate for attorney general in 2022, gained prominence by seizing on a clerical error in Antrim County that scrambled the county’s unofficial 2020 presidential results and using it to make false claims about manipulation of election results by Dominion Voting Systems machines. He is awaiting trial on multiple felony counts related to an alleged conspiracy to breach voting machines. DePerno has law degrees from University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and New York University School of Law.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.