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grand rapids — Former President Donald Trump won an overwhelming majority in the Michigan Republican caucuses on Saturday, winning all 39 delegates he was up for, and his supporters said the state’s Republican Party, which has struggled with divisions in recent months, is now in his prime. He said he is united behind the
The caucus, whose theme was “Rising from the Ashes,” was held at the Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids amid intense infighting within the state’s Republican Party. The convention had the power to decide how to allocate 39 of Michigan’s 55 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
The remaining 16 delegates were selected in Tuesday’s presidential primary. According to unofficial counts, Trump appears to have received about 68% of the vote and 12 of 16 delegates in the primary, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley received 27% of the vote and 4 delegates. acquired people.
Mr. Trump fared much better in the caucuses, which drew hundreds of Republican activists and insiders from across the state to contest the presidential race. There were caucuses for 13 congressional districts. Each may award three delegates.
If a candidate receives a majority of votes in a district’s caucuses, that candidate has won all three delegates.
Trump received between 90% and 100% of the vote in all caucuses. Despite losing the 2020 presidential election and facing an onslaught of prosecutors, Trump won all votes cast for candidates in the 1st, 3rd, and 10th Congressional Districts, and some Despite the tie, it showed strength within the Michigan Republican Party. for his efforts to overturn the election results.
Christie Whitson of Monroe County attended the caucus wearing a T-shirt with a collage of photos of Trump. The country is moving to the left, she argued, and only Trump can fix it.
“Do I like his personality? No. Do I like his attitude? No,” Whitson said. “But business-wise, he ran the country.”
On Saturday, 1,575 delegates, or 98%, voted for Mr. Trump across all 13 caucuses, and 36, or 2%, voted for Ms. Haley, according to unofficial counts tracked by the party.
Trump narrowly won Michigan over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election on his way to the White House in 2016, but lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, when he lost his re-election bid.
Michigan is likely to be one of the few states that will decide which party wins the presidential election in November.
Trump and Biden are expected to face off in a rematch. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra said the results show the Republican Party is “united behind Donald Trump.”
For nearly six months, the Michigan Republican Party has been ravaged by leadership tensions between supporters of former Speaker Christina Karamo and critics who voted to remove her from office at the Jan. 6 Republican State Committee meeting. was.
Mr. Karamo had argued that the Jan. 6 meeting was improper, but Kent County Circuit Judge J. Joseph Rossi on Tuesday ruled that Mr. Karamo had been removed from office and that Mr. Karamo was no longer the party chairman. It was ruled that it could not be done.
“I think it’s going to be successful,” Hoxta said at the beginning of Saturday’s caucus meeting. “We’re putting together a framework to defeat Joe Biden. People should be optimistic and excited about it.”
“I’m ready to move on.”
Many Republicans said Saturday they hoped efforts to oust Biden would unite the party. Saturday’s caucuses were relatively low-drama, but that can’t be said about the past six months within the Michigan Republican Party.
Some Michigan Republicans who support Karamo attended alternative caucus meetings in Houghton Lake and Battle Creek on Saturday. But Karamo’s general counsel, Dan Hartman, was present at the Grand Rapids caucus meeting.
He refused to answer reporters’ questions. Asked why he wasn’t being interviewed, Hartman simply said, “Because.”
Although some signs posted at the caucus described Hoekstra as a “fraud,” many of the caucuses were held without major controversy.
“Something needed to be done,” said Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.
“Even though people are angry, they’re ready to move forward,” Maddock said. “They want to work hard, and President Trump gives us all something to do.”
Maddock said he has spoken with Trump in recent days and will be visiting Michigan “frequently,” perhaps once every four to six weeks, in the months leading up to the Nov. 5 presidential election.
approach the nomination
State Rep. Brian Posthumus (R-Rockford) said Trump “absolutely” will be the party’s nominee in November.
“There’s no question about that,” Posthumus said. “It’s time for people to come together, unite behind one person, and defeat Joe Biden.”
Postumas was an early supporter of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who withdrew from the presidential race in January.
Haley is the last Republican candidate to challenge Trump for the party’s nomination. She has argued that Trump won’t win the general election because of independent voters and some Republicans who don’t support him.
“If Donald Trump is the candidate, the Republican Party will lose the election again,” Haley said Monday while campaigning in Michigan. “We’re going to lose battleground states. We’re going to lose the House. We’re going to lose the Senate.”
But state Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Allen) disagreed with Haley’s analysis.
“The party under Trump is different than the party of any other candidate,” Lindsey said.
“He appeals much more to a very broad range of working-class sentiment, people who believe that the Republican Party can be a more working-class party no matter what,” Lindsey said. “He also resonates with a lot of people who are against forever wars and nonsense overseas, and he also resonates strongly with the subject of illegal immigration.”
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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