Over the weekend, the Michigan Republican Party’s internal dissensions and financial woes continued exploding publicly. The 2024 presidential elections are less than 11 months off.
Dissidents of the party released a report on Sunday night that criticized Chair Kristina Karmo for being a secretive autocrat, who had brought the party to the verge of bankruptcy due to mismanagement and an “utter failure” fundraising plan. Karamo denies the allegations.
Records show that the state party, under Karamo, filed a suit on Friday to gain control of the former party headquarters at Seymour Avenue, Lansing. The building that Karamo left early this year to cut costs is owned by an entity controlled by former party chairmen. According to a report by dissidents and first revealed by the Michigan Information & Research Service newsletter, the Lansing Police found the building unsecured recently after the electricity had been cut off due to non-payment.
Now, I am not sure but I believe this is a variation of fiscal conservatism, where an organization decides that it will sell an asset they don’t own to eliminate the deficit it created.
This sounds a lot like the way Democrats operate.
It sounds as though some members of the party are now deciding that Kristina Karmo, who was only elected state chairperson in February, needs to be removed IMMEDIATELY. According to both the linked article and a podcast on Donna Brandenburg, former gubernatorial nominee, a man named Warren Carpenter is leading the effort to remove Karamo by next year.
The podcast is available here. It goes into detail about why Carpenter and other people think Karamo should be removed ASAP.
Carpenter’s report detailing the GOP chair issues points out that Karamo was moonlighting in Nevada with a group while leading the Michigan GOP.
The report criticizes Karamo as well for interfering with county party affairs in Hillsdale County, and elsewhere.
It says that she has a conflict of interests by being both the Nevada state party chair as well as president of UnAuthorized. This nonprofit describes itself as working both with Republicans and Democrats to promote constitutional values.
The report states that “Ms. Karamo responds to those who question her by either claiming they are in league or malfeasance with the ‘deep-state’.”
You have a job to do when you get paid six figures a year to run an opposition party against the Democrats. Your job is to ensure that the party has the strongest platform. It is not your job to moonlight in Nevada with a bipartisan organization to bolster your wallet to help Republicans AND Democrats get elected.
It would be more offensive to Michigan Republicans if she did it for free.
This could be the reason why, as was mentioned earlier, the party has a debt of over half a million dollars and is nowhere near its fundraising goal.
In February this year, the grassroots members of the Michigan Republican Party voted based on emotion over results. They elected someone who had no right to run for the top position of the party in the state of Michigan after she was beaten in the election for Secretary of State in November 2022.
It’s time to put an end to this farce.
In 2026, the party must start rebuilding in preparation for the Governor’s race.
