Michigan delegates at RNC want to lower the temperature of political discourse

The Republican National Convention is underway in Milwaukee and GOP leaders from Michigan are taking a different tone from similar events in the recent past.

WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter and Russ McNamara are at the convention site this week.  Quinn spoke with WDET’s Jerome Vaughn about how the Michigan delegation’s thoughts about the convention as it unfolds.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Quinn Klinefelter: There’s still some of the firebrand rhetoric in both private conversations and among some of the Michiganders who’ve given speeches so far during prime time.

But the apparent attempted assassination of former President Trump last weekend has really re-cast how the GOP wants to present the event.

Republican officials had already wanted to have a somewhat more moderate sounding conversation. But Michigan GOP leaders, like the state party chair Pete Hoekstra, are now saying they want to lower the temperature of the heated political divisions we’ve seen for years.

“When we hear harsh comments, I think everybody’s gonna take a step back and say is this really helpful, is it necessary? I mean we’ve seen what happens when political discourse moves from discourse to violence. And it’s scary,” Hoekstra said.

Now much of that heated political rhetoric has come from former President Trump during his campaign rallies, but there’s also been heated divisions within the Michigan GOP party itself…in-fighting over who was leading the party and accusations that fund raising in the state had come to almost a stand still.

Now Hoekstra is truly in command, and he predicts the party is going to be OK financially during the remainder of the campaign — in many ways because he says donors now see Donald Trump with a strong chance to win Michigan and seats across the ballot.

“I don’t have to worry about making payroll anymore. We’ve had our donors step up and we’re in a much better position. I’d like to say we’re in an awesome position, but awesome looks a little bit different than what I see,” Hoekstra said. “We’re in a good position, we’re fine on infrastructure. We’ve got what we need.”

Jerome Vaughn: GOP officials may want to re-set the tone of the dialogue. But does the Michigan leadership think that’s really something that can happen? For instance, the newly nominated Vice President J.D. Vance has pretty harshly criticized both President Biden and former President Trump in the past.

QK: They say they think it can happen, and again, they say that’s in part because of the attempted shooting of Trump over the weekend.

Michigan State Representative Bill G. Schuette is here, he’s also a vice chair of the House Republican Campaign Committee. So it’s his role to help get GOP candidates elected across Michigan.

And Schuette says the aftermath of the attempted assassination is having a real impact, providing a contrast with Democrats who are concerned about having President Biden as their standard-bearer.

“It’s on everyone’s mind across the country and especially here at our convention in Milwaukee. But the pulse I’ve heard from our fellow delegates, it’s a split screen of the Republicans versus the Democrats right now. The Democrats are divided, they have a nominee who people question even his physical fitness for office,” Schuette said. “Meanwhile we have a nominee who literally took a bullet and is coming on and going stronger.”

JV: Even with Trump’s dominance over the GOP now, Michigan Republicans have not been in lock-step supporting him though. How’s that playing out at the convention.

QK: You’re right, hundreds of thousands of Michiganders voted for Trump’s former campaign rival, Nikki Haley, and even though she’s throwing her support to Trump at the convention, some of her past Michigan voters say they are still somewhat leery of Trump. Some say especially now that’s he’s chosen Vance as a running mate.

Another issue at the fore is the fact that for the first time, the GOP platform here watered-down any mention of a national ban on abortion. That’s something the Trump campaign wanted, to limit an issue Democrats are using to attack the former President.

But Schuette, for one, says the change in the party’s long-time stance on the issue should not put off GOP voters, even anti-abortion advocates like himself.

“What President Trump said is after the Dobbs decision the issue of abortion was returned to the states and states have an opportunity to vote on the issue individually. We saw that happen in Michigan,” Schuette said.  “I think that was a vote that went too far — was too extreme — but what President Trump has said and what I think our party’s platform is is this issue was returned to voters in states and voters in the states have the opportunity to decide.”

It remains to be seen how the convention helps shape the decisions of voters as they head for the general election contest in November.