Michigan GOP delegates spurn incumbent university board members Weiser, Kelly

Flint — Michigan Republican Party delegates declined on Saturday to re-nominate two incumbent university board members for their positions, including Ron Weiser, a former state GOP chairman and longtime donor to the party.

At an occasionally raucous convention that lasted about 12 hours inside Flint’s Dort Financial Center, hundreds of Republicans selected Carl Meyers, a former state party treasurer, and Sevag Vartanian, a businessman who ran in 2022, to appear on the ballot in November as the GOP candidates for two seats on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.

Meyers and Vartanian got more votes than Weiser, an Ann Arbor businessman, who currently holds a seat on the UM board, according to results released by the Michigan Republican Party at about 10 p.m. Saturday night.

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Weiser was the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party during the 2022 election cycle, in which Democrats won control of the state Legislature for the first time in four decades. While he’s been a Republican mega-donor, he’s been criticized by grassroots activists within the party and was booed at a convention in August 2022.

Like Weiser, the GOP delegates chose not re-nominate Dan Kelly for a position on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. Kelly, an attorney in Auburn Hills, is the board’s current chairman, according to the university’s website. The MSU board has faced a string of controversies and infighting in recent years.

Instead of Kelly, Republican delegates nominated Mike Balow, who was a candidate in 2022, and Julie Maday, a former Novi City Council member, to appear on the November ballot.

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Saturday’s convention saw former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Kristina Karamo escorted out of the arena by police and some in the crowd boo current Chairman Pete Hoekstra, as infighting over the party’s leadership continued to divide delegates.

“Congratulations to all our candidates and newly elected nominees from today’s Convention,” Hoekstra said. “The most important takeaway from today is that the Michigan Republican Party is strong, unified and focused on one singular goal — flipping Michigan red this November.”

Todd Gillman, a Republican Party delegate from Lenawee County, said he actually thought the feuding at Saturday’s convention was going to be worse than it was.

“Every time that they try to disrupt, they get less and less people,” Gillman said of a faction that’s backing Karamo, who was removed as chairwoman in January.

On Saturday, Republican delegates also nominated state Rep. Andrew Fink of Hillsdale and Branch County Circuit Judge Patrick William O’Grady for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court that are on the ballot this fall.

Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority on the state’s high court.

Fink won his nomination over Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra, who had been endorsed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and former Supreme Court candidate Matt DePerno.

This fall, Fink will run against Democratic-nominated Kimberly Ann Thomas, a law professor at the University of Michigan. The winner will get a full eight-year term on the court, left up for grabs because of the impending retirement of GOP-nominated Justice David Viviano.

O’Grady defeated lawyer Alexandria Taylor of Romulus, who had the backing of Karamo. In November, O’Grady will face incumbent Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“I really want to urge everyone to come together on one accord with a spirit of forgiveness,” Taylor said on Saturday, as votes were being cast inside the hockey arena in Flint.

Delegates renominated incumbent State Board of Education members Tom McMillin and Nikki Snyder. And they nominated Michael Busuito, an incumbent, and Sunny Reddy for seats on the Wayne State University Board of Governors.

cmauger@detroitnews.com