Michigan’s Republican Party unanimously supports Trump at the RNC
RNC 2024: Donald Trump named Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump was officially named the presidential candidate at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
MADISON, Wis. — Under the fluorescent lights of a hotel conference room, Michigan state Republicans gathered for the most important meal of the day — and perhaps the week — at a kickoff breakfast before making their first appearance on the national stage at the Republican National Convention after a period of turmoil within the state party.
For months, Republicans in Michigan served as a prime example of intra-party unrest.
But that is all behind them, says Michigan Republican Chairman Pete Hoekstra, who has led the party back to power after the ouster of the previous chairman and a lengthy battle for the party’s top spot.
“We’re past that. We’re focused on winning,” Hoekstra told reporters in the lobby of a hotel just outside Madison, where the delegation is staying during the convention.
But why is Michigan’s Republican delegation staying over an hour’s drive from the action in Milwaukee? After all, this group of Republicans hails from a swing state central to former President Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House. Was it some sort of punishment for all the discord? Hoekstra declined to speculate, saying only that it was a decision made by the Republican National Committee several months ago, which he said thought at the time it was “a good place for Michigan Republicans to gather.”
Michigan isn’t the only state to see infighting among Republicans following Republican defeats in recent years. But the state suffered particularly tough defeats in 2022, when Democrats secured re-election to the state’s three most important offices and won control of the state legislature for the first time in 40 years. Those losses left Michigan Republicans looking for a way to recover, but the divisions that played out within the Michigan Republican Party never seemed to reflect major ideological disagreements about the path forward.
The defeats of Trump-backed candidates two years ago did not reignite the battle between so-called “Never Trumpers” and Trump loyalists. By then, Trump’s “Make America Great Again” vision had already swept the Republican Party, including in Michigan. Now, at a full-scale MAGA convention coming in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Trump rally and an assassination attempt on the former president, Michigan Republicans are ready to join their counterparts across the country in supporting their man.
“We are united as a party,” Hoekstra said, speaking to a room full of Republican delegates from Michigan wearing Trump merchandise and American flags. One of those present nodded vigorously in agreement and replied emphatically, “Yes.”
While Trump’s supporters were eating eggs and sausages, Hoekstra had good news for them: A federal judge had just dismissed charges in the former president’s case that he had mishandled classified documents. The judge argued that the appointment of the special counsel overseeing the case was unconstitutional.
Hoekstra predicts that the same group of Michigan Republicans present at the convention will celebrate again on January 20, 2025, “when we inaugurate Donald Trump,” which would elicit applause and cheers from delegates.
But Jason Watts wasn’t clapping. He was sent to Milwaukee as a surrogate delegate for Trump’s former opponent for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley. When he spoke at the breakfast, he was well on his way to becoming eligible to vote at the convention, as some Haley delegates had skipped the GOP convention altogether. Although Haley has released her delegates and asked them to vote for Trump, Watts did not say whether he would heed that call now or in November.
Watts is no fan of the former president, who he says rejects traditional Republican values, citing Trump’s questioning of the integrity of the country’s electoral system and the former president’s opposition to U.S. support for Ukraine. Watts has previously said he feels politically homeless in today’s GOP, which he said has led to death threats against him.
“I haven’t left the Republican Party, they’ve left me in some cases,” he said. This summer will be Watts’ fourth time attending the RNC, and while he said he is “still very friendly” with the Republicans he knows, he didn’t recognize many of the Michigan delegates at this year’s convention. “There are a lot of new faces,” he said.
One new attendee is Patrice Johnson, who leads voting groups that sprung up in the wake of the 2020 election, sowing doubt about the administration and helping recruit new poll workers for Republicans. She said she was “surprised and flattered to have been nominated” to attend her first party convention. Just a few days ago, she was at a meeting of Pure Integrity for Michigan Elections — one of the groups she leads — when she learned that Trump had been injured in the rally shooting. At the Stockbridge Community Center, she interrupted the meeting to share the news. “We prayed for him and then talked about how good it was that we were all able to be together during this time,” she said.
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It’s a time that marks the first assassination attempt against a presidential candidate in several decades. A time that also saw the first convictions of a former president for a serious crime, among other unprecedented developments this campaign cycle. But at least one political tradition endured. Republican Rep. Bill Schuette of Midland poured coffee to Republican delegates at breakfast at the hotel Monday morning. It’s a habit passed down to him by his father — former U.S. Rep. and former Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette — who began carrying pots of coffee to local GOP meetings to connect with voters during his first run for office.
Schuette, the state representative, said Republicans seemed to have developed a certain strength and resilience after the tragic shooting at the Trump rally.
“It’s like the image of President Trump putting his fist in the air. That’s the spirit of America, isn’t it?” he said. “And that’s where I think that’s again a divide between the Republicans and the Democrats. The Democrats are divided. They have a candidate who people are even questioning his physical fitness for office. At the same time, we have a candidate who literally took a bullet and is now strong again.”
This is Trump, the candidate most if not all Michigan Republicans were planning to support at the convention. As they made the trip to Milwaukee in chartered buses departing from hotel parking lots, they seemed to have put the discord that had marked the start of a crucial election year far behind them.
Contact Clara Hendrickson: [email protected] or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @clarajanehen.
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