Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo Broke My Heart but Ultimately Proved Me Right About State GOP HQ

AP Photo/Joey Cappelletti, File

I knew it. 

I'm telling you, I knew back in February of 2023 that something super-duper odd had happened to the Michigan Republican Party after their convention. I was used to odd things happening, which was why I left the party in 1992 officially, because they were doing weird things back then. When I rejoined in 2006, they flat-out botched the de Vos election.

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I'll get to that in a minute though.

Earlier on Friday morning, on my Facebook Live show, "Duke Over America," I had one of my viewers inform me that I was lacking in some knowledge of the goings-on in the Michigan Grand Ole Party, which I have covered here (search on my author page for "Michigan GOP") with more than 20 stories. Of course, I was grateful for the info and, after the show, set myself to catch up on all the mayhem that is the state of Michigan Republican Party.

Here was just a part of it, which brings us up to speed on where we are today.

Members of the Michigan Republican Party's state committee have scheduled a special meeting Saturday to consider the removal of Kristina Karamo, though the embattled state party chair said Tuesday the meeting has not been lawfully scheduled.

A 75% vote of the state committee, which has a little more than 100 members, is required to remove Karamo as chair, under Michigan Republican Party bylaws. But another agenda item would reduce that threshold to a two-thirds vote. Amending party bylaws also requires a two-thirds vote of the committee.

Karamo, who, like her most vocal internal party critics, is a strong backer of former President Donald Trump, has been under fire for financial and organizational disarray in the state party, allegations of autocratic rule and a lack of transparency, and alleged interference with county party business.

This is why we are here.

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Back in February of 2023, the Michigan Republican Party limped into its post-convention from the 2022 November election in desperate need of new leadership, after the team of GOP chairman Ron Weiser and co-chair Meshawn Maddock did not have the desired results that everyone preferred.

Four or five candidates were running to replace Weiser, and on that list were former Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno and former Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo. Both were endorsed by former Donald Trump in their races in November of 2022.  However, it was DePerno who garnered Trump's endorsement to run for the top post in the state party.

Yet after the first round of balloting, Karamo led DePerno among the mostly pro-Trump delegates--and a bell went off in my head that screamed.

NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER  (Thanks, "Dirty Dancing.")

YOU DON'T DISS THE DONALD

They did both, and after multiple ballots, Karamo came out on top of Trump's handpicked person. I had a sense that somehow a fix was in. 

I  talked with people who were there and witnessed the train wreck in slow motion, in my post called Michigan GOP Blows Up With Chairman Choice and Democrats Rejoice and Laugh.

Yet, not even a month later, I went full W.T.F. mode when the chairperson decided to abandon the state headquarters for a post office box to save money.

From my eerily prophetic piece from March of 2023, Did the Michigan GOP Just Concede the 2024 POTUS Race With Its Latest Move?

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I opened with this...

I can already hear people complaining that I’m a RINO or some other nonsense that they make up to make themselves feel better about actual observations or questions being brought up about the fact that, maybe, the GOP in the state of Michigan has not improved since the last election for chairperson. Yet in all fairness, the last chairperson and co-chair were quite awful, but it seems like Kristina Karamo started off her term with a “hold my beer” statement, to see how fast she could top the ineptitude of the last leadership team.

The lady moves fast.

Then I went for the common sense observation THAT ANYONE NOT BRAIN DEAD SHOULD HAVE HAD...

The latest installment of the Michigan Republican Follies comes in the form of news that the newly elected Michigan GOP chair Kristina Karamo has decided to abandon the Michigan GOP headquarters in Lansing, Michigan. There is nothing really wrong with the building, but she decided that it was time to move party operations across the state and use a P.O. Box out of Grand Rapids for an official mailing address.

How 21st century is that?

From The Detroit News

Kristina Karamo, the new chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, announced Monday she doesn’t plan to use the GOP’s longtime headquarters in Lansing, a development that represents a significant shift in the party’s operations.

Karamo, a frequent critic of the so-called Republican “establishment,” contended there were better ways to expend donors’ contributions than paying a trust, run by former party chairs, that controls the property. It would cost about $12,000 a month to keep operating out of the building, wrote Karamo and her co-chair, Malinda Pego, in an “update” email to Republican activists.

“Instead of paying a lease/rent to ‘a trust’ that is claiming we can’t even see the trust documents, and instead of attempting to repair the building that does not belong to MIGOP, we shall not be making use of this building given that, to do so, does not represent best use of fundraising dollars,” Karamo and Pego wrote.

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The second that Karamo suggests this move, I had the thought in my head that she was a Democrat--or sure as hell acting like one. I say it in the paragraph above, the paragraph I lifted from my article.

Now, I come to find out, in the info my viewer sent me, of a show that covers Michigan much better than I called "Rescue Michigan Coalition," hosted by Adam de Angel (and with guests Matt Wilk and Warren Carpenter). The show went into very specific detail about a response to a Karamo-initiated lawsuit about the GOP HQ that Karamo abandoned, but now says the party owns.

Excuse me?

The party was not renting the building for $12,000 a month but ONE DOLLAR a year. She is claiming that she abandoned a building she was renting but now wants to sell it to get caught up on some debt that the party owes, being she has raised very little money, which I have covered here.

TOAST: Michigan GOP Is About to Default on Loan Payments, According to Budget Cmte. Member Who Resigned

I can't believe I was lied to, but someone who lost their race for Secretary of State by double digits claimed fraud and never provided a shred of proof.

So now, the Michigan GOP is going to have a fight on its hands to remove someone who is supremely incompetent or just a flat-out Democrat, and has done the greatest "Undercover Boss" segment ever, with a fight over Trump supporters supporting this mess of a chairperson and others who supports Donald Trump more.

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I left the party in 1992 because of the non-thinking, mouth-breathing, salute-at-any-cost rabble that was there. Now, over 30 years later, it has only gotten worse and I have gotten older. But I'm a tad more grumpy and more concerned about my country than ever before.

Might be time to rejoin the party and just yell at the rabble for old times' sake.

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