LANSING, Mich. — In the end, it didn’t matter that Kristina Karamo had never won a statewide election, that she had frightened moderate voters by comparing abortion to a “satanic practice” or that she had refused to concede her resounding loss for secretary of state in November. After three tedious rounds of voting at a Michigan Republican Party convention last weekend, a majority of about 2,000 precinct delegates chose Karamo to lead this important swing-state political apparatus through the 2024 presidential election.
“We will not betray you. We will not lie to you. We are committed to every promise that we made,” Karamo told the crowd during her acceptance speech as party chair.
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Karamo and her running mate, County Commissioner Malinda Pego, prevailed in the final round of voting last Saturday. And in a new sign of former President Donald Trump’s diminishing influence, the women beat the Trump-endorsed ticket of Matt DePerno and Garrett Soldano to replace MAGA loyalist Meshawn Maddock and establishment fundraiser Ron Weiser. Maddock and Weiser had formed a tenuous alliance leading Michigan Republicans for the last two years.
It had taken nearly 12 hours to get to this moment. The Michigan GOP, awash in the baseless conspiracy theory that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election through some form of machine tampering, decided before the convention to shun electronic tabulators. It opted instead for what it believed to be a more secure paper and iPad-based method. The entire process had taken so long that organizers were forced to extend their rental of the Lansing Convention Center, , admitted that it had become nearly impossible to raise money. “There is no special well of funds bubbling up resources for us, and the radical left and their hostile media arm have been very effective at shaming our reliable big donors away from supporting the party,” she wrote.
Maddock attended the convention, keeping a low profile. Weiser was a no-show, as far as people I spoke to could tell. The day of the vote for her successor, Maddock was wearing all black accented with a sparkly MAGA pin. The race for party chair wasn’t the only one on her radar: Her son-in-law Parker Shonts was running for youth chair, and it seemed that Maddock had called in a favor to Lindell, who had recorded an endorsement video. But like Trump’s seal of approval, an endorsement from the founder and CEO of My Pillow isn’t what it used to be. Maddock’s son-in-law lost by a decisive margin in the first round of voting.
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It was nearly 8 p.m. when the newly anointed state GOP chair accepted her win. She mentioned neither Maddock, Trump’s top ally in Michigan, nor Weiser, one of Michigan’s most prolific GOP fundraisers. And few people, if any, seemed to care.
