Michigan Republicans to vote on ousting controversial leader Karamo

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) – A group of Michigan Republicans plans to meet on Saturday to consider removing Kristina Karamo as state party chairperson, after months of infighting and deteriorating finances that threaten to undercut the party’s chances in the 2024 general election in the battleground state.

Critics of Karamo have called for a special meeting of the party’s state committee, and the meeting agenda, seen by Reuters, includes “review and possible removal,” of Karamo.

Since being elevated to chairperson in February on the back of support from grassroots activists, Karamo has struggled to make good on her promise to break free from the big donors she vilified as part of the “establishment” and expand the base of small donors to fill the gap.

The state party is “on the brink of bankruptcy,” according to a report released last month by Warren Carpenter, a former congressional district chair and one-time Karamo supporter. The report faulted Karamo for a lack of transparency over finances and other issues and said the party was deep in debt and “essentially non-functional” under her leadership.

Karamo did not respond to requests for comment. In an email statement on Friday the party said the Saturday meeting “by a faction of the State Committee” was unauthorized and in violation of party bylaws. Karamo would attend at a separately called special meeting on Jan. 13, according to the statement.

Saturday’s vote is unprecedented in state party history and underscores the turmoil crippling the organization, according to Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party.

Even if Karamo is ousted, Timmer said it was unclear who would take her place and predicted that continued chaos would hinder the party from fulfilling its traditional role of organizing and fundraising for Republican candidates.

“The strife, dysfunction, and utter lack of funds will especially hurt the close federal races and also the close legislative races,” said Timmer, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, a group opposed to former President Donald Trump.

Karamo, a former community college instructor who ran unsuccessfully for Michigan secretary of state in 2022, backs Trump’s false claim that he lost the 2020 election through widespread fraud.

Bree Moeggenberg, a state committee member who helped organize Saturday’s meeting, said she was optimistic a majority of the roughly 100 state committee members would attend, reaching the threshold for a quorum.

“She has failed in leadership,” said Moeggenberg, who backed Karamo during the leadership vote in February but later became a vocal critic. “It would help everyone to move forward, to move to unify, if she would just resign.”