Michigan

Michigan Republicans have a money problem

Published

2 years ago

August 3, 2024

Michigan Republicans have a money problem

With less than a 100 days to go before the presidential election, the Michigan GOP is entangled in financial turmoil, despite recent attempts to stabilize the state party’s shaky finances.

After a troublesome year under the helm of former Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo, who clashed with some long-term, big-name donors to the party during her leadership, new chair Pete Hoekstra vowed to put the party back on the right track. Recent financial statements prove that, in the time between Karamo’s ouster in January and now, Hoekstra hasn’t yet achieved that goal financially.

The latest financial report from the Michigan GOP, released on July 25, shows that the party has only $384,000 on hand in its federal campaign account, while owing $184,000 in its state account.

Michigan Republican Party delegates convene at the Michigan GOP State Convention on March 2, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Despite attempts to bring the Michigan GOP’s shaky finances back on track, the party’s funds are…

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Those are dire numbers for the party, especially when compared to the funds available to the Michigan Democratic Party, which recently reported having over six times the amount of money in their federal campaign account than the Michigan GOP. As of June 30, the Michigan Democratic Party reported having $2,273,068.51 cash on hand.

“The Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra vowed to get the party’s financial state in order when he took over for disgraced chair Kristina Karamo—clearly this hasn’t happened,” Andrew Feldman, founder and principal of the progressive strategic communications firm Feldman Strategies, told Newsweek.

“Regardless of what Donald Trump says about his support in Michigan, this financial picture plus new polls showing the race is tied are bad news for him, and puts the MAGA GOP in a tough place with just over three months until Election Day,” he added.

Michigan is a key swing state having gone for the Democratic nominee for president in seven of the last eight elections, including for Joe Biden in 2020. Trump won the state in 2016, one of the key victories in his ascent to the White House.

Newsweek reached out to the Michigan GOP for comment by email on Wednesday but has not received a response.

Political consultant and former Michigan GOP Executive Director Jeff Timmer, who describes himself as an “erstwhile” Republican, told Newsweek that looking at the current Michigan GOP’s campaign account, the party’s “really missing two entire zeros after that $300,000. They should have $30 million in their account. They don’t even have $3 million. They have one tenth of that.”

While saying that Karamo was “a quantum level bad fundraiser”, Timmer believes Hoekstra is “just an atomic level bad fundraiser.” Investors just aren’t willing to put money behind Trump in the battleground state, Timmer said.

“The historic donors to the party have said, this is not my circus, they’re not my monkeys. There have been reports that the DeVos family has resumed donations to the Michigan GOP, but they have committed like $10,000 each. That’s a fraction of what they were doing 25 years ago. They haven’t really invested; they’ve just written token checks.”

According to recent Federal Election Commission filings by the Michigan Republican Party, seven members of the DeVos family—Betsy, Dick, Cheri, Dan, Pamella, Doug and Maria—donated $10,000 each to the party in June, as reported by MLive.

Donations were resumed after a yearlong freeze while Karamo was at the helm of the party.

For Timmer, the Michigan GOP just doesn’t have enough money in their account to compete in one competitive legislative race, “let alone fight to regain control of the legislature in Lansing,” he told Newsweek. “They’re functionally bankrupt with $300,000—might as well be zero dollars. They matter the same in these next hundred days.”

Timmer expects the financial troubles of the Michigan GOP to cost Trump the state in November. “I fully expect that at the end of the day, Trump will lose Michigan and the Republicans will lose the Congressional and Senate races here,” he said.

Source link

Click to comment

Michigan

Sweet 16 crossroads for Nimari Burnett journey to Michigan basketball

Published

59 minutes ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Sweet 16 crossroads for Nimari Burnett journey to Michigan basketball

BUFFALO, NY — Nimari Burnett couldn’t help but shake his head as he thought about it.

As he sat in front of his locker at KeyBank Center, after Michigan rolled over Saint Louis to return to the Sweet 16. before the buses returned, he realized he’d be playing a former team one way or the other. His two former programs, Alabama and Texas Tech were set to meet in the NCAA Tournament second round. The winner would head to the Sweet 16 to face Michigan basketball at Chicago’s United Center, with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line.

The team on which he made his college mark, playing against a squad where it didn’t work out, in his hometown, the place where he became a freshman All-American, before he transferred to Prolific Prep and took the next step of his journey.

“It’s an exciting feeling,” Burnett said. “I was talking to my family about it the other day. “Just can’t wait to see who we’ll play.”

On Sunday night, the Crimson Tide and Red Raiders squared off in Tampa, Florida, with XXX prevailing, xxx.

And now, Burnett’s basketball journey will get a full-circle moment, on Friday

But it will be just one of several big moments for him.

‘I’d be making a dumb decision’

A year ago Nimari Burnett, his now-fiancé, Will Tschetter and his girlfriend all went out to lunch at Cafe Zola in downtown Ann Arbor.

had been eliminated in the Sweet 16 about a week earlier, and the two longest-tenured Wolverines wanted a well-earned time away from the game to enjoy some food, friends and laughs.

Burnett had just finished his fifth year of college basketball and all season long, he’d been telling his teammates it was likely his last.

In fact, Burnett didn’t go through U-M’s senior day activities in March 2025, because he’d done so the year before, under the previous staff, and didn’t want to make the moment about himself, given he’d already had one.

But on that late March afternoon, Tschetter couldn’t help himself — he had to know.

“I remember straight up asking him, ‘What are your thoughts on next year?’” Tschetter said Saturday in Michigan’s locker room at KeyBank Center. “That was when, I think, he’d made his decision, he was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to pull the trigger and come back.’

“All year he’d been saying, like, ‘Nah, this is my last year.’ We were all getting the ‘Unc’ jokes in, because he was a fifth-year. But yeah, I mean we were all super, super happy when he made the decision. It’s been a great ride with him.’

Burnett made his return to the Wolverines official less than a month after that lunch, on April 21, 2025. He was optimistic, based on the roster coming together — transfers Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara were already in the fold, with the possibility of landing Yaxel Lendeborg — that the 2025-26 season could be a special one.

The staff’s message and vision only convinced him further.

“I felt like last year was the best year of college, until this year,” Burnett said, his eyes almost reflective, as if he was processing it all in real time. “My collegiate career has been long, been through a lot of ups and downs and so I was uncertain of the future.

“But just trusting the staff, understanding they had high hopes of winning and they know how to recruit. I was like yeah, I’d be making a dumb decision [to leave].”

Of course, Burnett didn’t know all that would follow. But after everything he’d gone through to that point, he was more than willing to take the chance.

The winding journey

A McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school, Burnett began his collegiate career at Texas Tech. After one injury-shortened year in Lubbock, Burnett didn’t like the fit, so he opted to transfer to Alabama.

The move to the SEC brought a world of changes. In the months leading up to the season, Burnett tore his ACL, which sidelined him for the entirety of the 2021-22 season. His next season wasn’t much better, playing fewer than 15 minutes a game, with a mere nine starts.

He hit the road again, landing in Ann Arbor in 2023 under coach Juwan Howard. That season produced some of the worst results in program history. But Burnett stuck through it, agreeing to play for his fourth coach when Howard was replaced by Dusty May.

Its tough to argue with the results.

The sixth year in college has proven to be the best yet. Michigan (33-3, 19-1 Big Ten) has had a historic season, tying the program record for most wins in a season, setting a Big Ten record for wins in conference play and became the first Big Ten team in 50 years to sweep its road slate.

The Wolverines have gone 60-13 the past two seasons, with a Big Ten Tournament title, a regular-season crown and now, two straight Sweet 16s.

It’s clear that his story is reaching its climax.

‘Literally, it’s God’

Burnett is not a star for this Wolverines team. He’s a floor-spacer, a shooter, a trusted veteran who fills in the gaps. But he’s also exactly what makes a team like this click. He doesn’t require the ball, yet can make an impact quickly — like his 11 points Saturday against Saint Louis, including three 3-pointers, and a steal at center court that he took the other way for a contested layup.

He’s also capable of much more — his 31 points against Penn State last month were the most by any Wolverine this season — but he never forces that issue. It’s the player he developed into through the years.

Coming into college as a star, being relegated to a backup, then finding his final form in Ann Arbor. It’s only fitting every aspect of his journey comes to a crossroads as the Wolverines reach their most important weekend so far.

“I mean literally, it’s God,” Burnett said. “It’s so apparent. He couldn’t have drew it up better.”

Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

Source link

Michigan

Michigan hockey leads trio of top NCAA Tournament seeds from the state

Published

13 hours ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Michigan hockey leads trio of top NCAA Tournament seeds from the state

Free Press staff and wire reports
| Detroit Free Press

Michigan hockey has its NCAA Tournament path to the Frozen Four, and it will be a tough one, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday, March 22.

The No. 1 overall seed Wolverines (29-7-1) – who are No. 1 in the USCHO poll and won won their first Big Ten Tournament title since 2023 on Saturday night – are headed to Albany, New York. U-M, making its record-tying 42nd NCAA appearance, will face 4-seed Bentley, the Atlantic Hockey champs, in the first round on Friday, March 27 (5:30 p.m., ESPNU).

Who else is in Michigan hockey regional?

The bottom half of U-M’s region should have some appeal to NHL prospect watchers, as well: Potential No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna and Penn State will face Minnesota Duluth in the second game. The Bulldogs are led by Detroit Red Wings prospect Max Plante; the second-round pick in 2024 has 24 goals and 25 assists for UMD to sit fifth in points nationally.

The final for the Albany regional, which could be an all-Big Ten affair, is set for Sunday, March 29.

Two wins for the Wolverines would send them to the Frozen Four, which is set to be played at T-Mobile Arena (the home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights) on April 9-11. U-M hasn’t made the

Where is Michigan State hockey playing?

Meanwhile, Michigan State, the No. 3 overall seed, is headed to Worcester, Massachusetts. The Spartans (25-8-2), who won the Big Ten regular-season title but fell in the tournament semifinals, will face Hockey East runner-up Connecticut (20-12-5) on Thursday, March 26 (1:30 p.m., ESPN2).

The Worcester regional could also feature an all-Big Ten final on Saturday, with Wisconsin (21-12-2 to finish fourth in the Big Ten) facing ECAC champ Dartmouth on Thursday (5 p.m., ESPNU).

Where is Western Michigan hockey playing?

Finally, there’s Western Michigan, only the defending champs. The Broncos (26-10-1) will start their title defense as the No. 4 overall seed, and the top seed in the Loveland, Colorado, region. They’ll face CCHA champions Minnesota State (22-10-7) in the regional semifinal on Friday (2:30 p.m., ESPNU).

Despite having the champion bona fides and the 1-seed, the Broncos might be the underdogs to advance to the Frozen Four, as they’re likely to face host Denver (25-11-3) in the regional final; the Pioneers won NCAA titles in 2022 and ‘24 and beat WMU in the NCHC semifinals, 2-1 in OT, last weekend.

The 16-team field was rounded out with the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, regional, which features North Dakota – the No. 2 overall seed – facing Merrimack in the first round on Thursday, The bottom of that regional features another recent NCAA champ, as Quinnipiac (which won it all in 2023) takes on Providence.

Source link

Michigan

Michigan women’s basketball not content with Sweet 16 as a goal

Published

1 day ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Michigan women’s basketball not content with Sweet 16 as a goal

Dusty May knew immediately. Or at least the first time he saw his team in a gym last summer.

He knew his men’s Michigan basketball team would be good. Final Four good. Title-worthy good, and certainly the best collection of talent he’d ever … well … collected.

Kim Barnes Arico wasn’t so sure. The Michigan women’s coach also gathered her team last summer. She also looked out over the gym floor and saw the best collection of talent she’d ever recruited to Ann Arbor.

Her talent was younger though, highlighted by three sophomores in Mila Holloway, Olivia Olson and Syla Swords. But it wasn’t just the youth that gave her pause.

“Dusty’s mindset is a little bit different,” she said Saturday, March 21, at Crisler Center, ahead of her team’s second-round matchup with North Carolina State on Sunday (1 p.m., ABC). “I always am, ‘Are we going to be good?’ I’m always questioning how good are we really going to be. I think that’s the coach in me.”

Oh, don’t get her wrong. She knew she had talent. Even as freshmen, she admitted, the trio of Holloway, Olson and Swords “were just different.”

“When we headed into the first game of their college career in (Las) Vegas against South Carolina, I don’t know (whether or not) people expected us to lose by 30. We were in a one-possession game at the end of the game. At that point, I realized we had something special.”

Still, did she see her group would be a No. 2 seed not even two years later? Hosting first- and second-round games? Pulling into the Crisler parking lot and seeing students waiting to get in?

Swords, her star shooting guard, sure didn’t.

“There was like a line of 10 people waiting to get in two hours before the game,” she said. “That seems like a small thing, but we were all staring outside the bus, [like], ‘Oh, my gosh, there’s a lineup to get in!’ Just special like that to make us feel like we’re connected with the student body and make us feel like we have their support.”

Consider that a step. One of several Swords and Holloway and Olson and Barnes Arico want to take. Think they are ready to take, now that they are here, a victory from the Sweet 16.

They’ll have to get through a much tougher opponent to get there than the one they beat Friday evening in the first round. Holy Cross was happy to be in the tournament, and said as much after losing by 35 to the Wolverines.

North Carolina State isn’t happy to be here. They have a legacy, not to mention more size and physicality than Holy Cross. The Wolfpack employ two bigs – 6-foot-6 Tilda Trygger and 6-2 Khamil Pierre, the team’s leading scorer and a walking double-double.

U-M has length but not that kind of length. Or size. But they’ve got skill – everywhere – and are favored for a reason.

Michigan, as a program, has only been to the Sweet 16 two other times – 2021 and 2022 – so making it a third is no small thing. Yet it’s not where Olson and Swords and Holloway are looking to stop.

“We want to raise the program to another level,” said Olson.

They’ve done that all season, game by game, earning that 2-seed and homecourt in the first two rounds.

Did Barnes Arico see that last summer?

“Did I realize that we would be a top-10 team all season long? No. Did I realize that we would play some of the best teams in the country, the No. 1 and the No. 2 team in the country, to a one-possession game, with a chance to tie the game in both of those games? No. But I think sometimes this team, this group of young women … they continue to surprise. … I would have hoped that we would be pretty good,” she said, “but I’m really happy where we are.”

Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

Source link