Michigan Republicans hold disputed vote to oust party leader

Simmering tensions within the Michigan Republican Party flared on Saturday, with some party officials voting to fire their embattled chairwoman, Kristina Karamo, in a controversial proceeding that she and other Republicans said was illegal.

The showdown, which took place at a meeting of a breakaway faction of the state party, now appears likely to end up in court.

The attempt to oust Ms. Karamo, who was not present at the meeting, is the latest clash in a party marred by infighting and financial difficulties since Ms. Karamo took power in February, and is likely to further hobble the Republican Party . efforts in the critical swing state during the 2024 election cycle.

Ms. Karamo was part of a cohort of far-right activists who rose to the top of state parties as former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters railed against his 2020 election defeat.

The effort to oust her could signal the break-up of the loose coalition of conservative activists, who are motivated by conspiracy theories about the election process and their staunch support for Mr. Trump. Several provincial chairmen who pushed for Ms. Karamo’s resignation remain staunch supporters of the former president and the false idea that the 2020 election was stolen.

About 71 of the party’s 107 state committee members (including some who were represented by a proxy) attended the meeting in Commerce, Michigan, on the outskirts of Detroit’s suburbs, according to Bree Moeggenberg, a state party committee member and organizer of the attempt to oust Ms. Karamo.

Those involved in the effort first voted to change the bylaws to lower the threshold needed to remove the chairman. According to Ms. Moeggenberg, 88 percent voted in favor of deposing Ms. Karamo in the final vote.

In an interview, Ms. Moeggenberg criticized what she described as a lack of transparency by Ms. Karamo, saying she had lost confidence in her leadership this summer after backing her to lead the state party.

“She was NOT an effective leader capable of building a coalition of REPUBLICANS to grow our voter base and WIN,” Ms. Moeggenberg said in a text message after the vote on Saturday.

Ms. Moeggenberg said those who voted to oust Ms. Karamo recognized Malinda Pego, the current co-chair and a public critic of Ms. Karamo, as interim chair.

In a statement, Ms. Karamo denounced the effort as a sham.

“It was an unlawful assembly. Their actions have no legal status,” Ms. Karamo said. “I am still chairman of the Republican Party of Michigan.”

A statement from the Republican Party of Michigan labeled the vote an “attempted coup” and pledged to hold participants “accountable to the fullest extent permitted by the rules of the Constitution of the Republican Party of Michigan.”

The Republican National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Karamo faced headwinds almost immediately after her election as chair in February. Michigan’s Republican Party was already divided between the more traditional, moderate wing of small government, which dominated state politics for decades, and an emerging grassroots base loyal to Trump and driven by lies about the 2020 election.

After the party’s respected Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference was considered a failure by some in the state party because of lackluster attendance and unremarkable speakers, a public effort to vote out Ms. Karamo began to gain support. By late November, the chairmen of the major provincial parties, who were once part of the effort to elect Ms. Karamo, had turned against her.

Mark Forton, the chairman of the Macomb County Republican Party, who played a key role in Ms. Karamo’s rise, voted Saturday to oust her, citing what he described as her attempt to shift power from Republicans to provincial level. as the party’s hazy finances.

“We have no idea how much money is coming in,” he says. “We have no idea how much money will come out.”

While the infighting is likely to continue, members of Ms. Karamo’s inner circle have noted that it is taking a toll on broader Republican efforts in the state.

“This farce is not legitimate,” Daniel Hartman, an attorney for the Republican Party of Michigan, said in a statement Saturday afternoon, “but will make headlines and further divide the party.”

Ms. Karamo is the second chairwoman of the Republican Party in a key state that has faced a revolt from GOP leaders in recent weeks. In Florida, the party’s executive committee last month censured Christian Ziegler, its chairman, and stripped him of his duties and salary. It cited a criminal investigation into an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman.

In the run-up to Saturday’s rally in Michigan, Ms. Karamo and her team argued that the bylaws did not allow the rally to be held and that organizers had not submitted enough signatures to the party secretary to make the rally official.

Late Friday night in a virtual town hall, Mr. Hartman, the attorney for the Michigan GOP, vigorously defended Ms. Karamo and parried accusations of failure and impropriety under the leadership of the Michigan Republican Party. During the three-and-a-half-hour meeting, he reiterated that the meeting calling for her ouster violated party rules.

“I want to be clear here: 2,500 delegates elected Kristina Karamo by about 13 points at a convention,” Mr. Hartman said. “The state commission, which is a representative group, cannot easily thwart that.”