Karamo forcibly removed from Michigan GOP convention; party chooses Fink, O’Grady for state Supreme Court
Police threatened to arrest Karamo for trespassing, though she was wearing an all-access credential during the encounter.
Kristina Karamo celebrates her election as Michigan Republican Party chair at the state party's convention on February 18, 2023.
The Michigan Republican Party accomplished its goal of choosing candidates for statewide offices including Michigan Supreme Court, state school board, and university boards of education during its nominating convention Saturday in Flint.
The party chose State Rep. Andrew Fink (R-Hillsdale) to run for the state’s open Supreme Court Seat and Circuit Judge Bill O’Grady to run for the final four years of a partial term currently being filled by Justice Kyra Harris Bolden.
Fink pledged to be neutral in his rulings regardless of his personal beliefs.
“If it just always happens to be where your preferences and your interpretation are the same, you probably should take a step back and reconsider your approach to these cases,” he said.
Incumbents Nikki Snyder and Tom McMillan won their race to get on the ballot again for state school board.
Sevag Vartanian and Carl Meyers won the University of Michigan Board of Regents nomination, edging out current regent and former Party Chair Ron Weiser.
Mike Balow and Julie Maday won the nominations for Michigan State University Board of Trustees, taking down sitting Trustee Dan Kelly.
Delegates selected Wayne State University Governor Michael Busuito and newcomer Sunny Reddy to run for Wayne State University Board of Governors.
Many of the speeches during Saturday’s program at the Dort Financial Center in Flint called for unity, spreading the party’s reach, and attacked Democrats on the economy and culture war issues like transgender rights.
Party members heard from speakers like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Rogers. People who once had been relative outsiders, like Dr. Sherry O’Donnell also were mainstays on the stage.
Despite the olive branches, old tensions arose at times during the convention.
Soon after official party business began, a group of attendees unsuccessfully moved to replace the Kalamazoo County delegation led by county party chair Kelly Sackett with a slate of competing attendees led by Republican state committee member Kim Harris.
That’s after the county party had been ordered to redo the delegate selection process.
Later in the morning, former state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo was escorted out of the building.
Flint police led Karamo to her car by her arms as she spoke with reporters and accused current and past party leadership of calling the police on her while she was advocating for a state Supreme Court candidate.
“My goal now is to help candidates get elected. That’s what I’m here to do today is to help Alexandria Taylor and other Republican candidates get elected. My goal is to help our country. But these people want to disturb us because they hate not just me but all of us and what we represent. So, of course, they’d want us gone,” Karamo told reporters.
Police threatened to arrest Karamo for trespassing, though she was wearing an all-access credential during the encounter.
In a statement to reporters, MIGOP spokesperson Victoria LaCivita said credentials can be revoked at any time.
“She was offered a guest credential, she refused. She was asked to take a seat, she refused. She was asked to politely leave, but refused. Law enforcement was called and escorted her out of the building, causing an interruption,” LaCivita said.
Earlier on in the day, smaller spats between Karamo’s allies and supporters of her successor, Chair Pete Hoekstra arose again.
While contesting control of the party earlier this year, Karamo’s camp accused Hoekstra of being an old guard insider who lost his ties to the party’s grass roots. Meanwhile, Karamo’s opponents accused her of sowing division within the party and leading it to financial ruin.
Hoekstra, like Karamo’s predecessor during the 2022 election cycle, received boos as he took the stage.
“It’s obvious, some of you don’t like me. That’s okay. I’m not on the ballot. I’m not looking for your votes. I’m looking forward to putting together the organization that is a winning team. In Michigan we are tired of losing,” Hoekstra told the crowd. “Everyone is welcome to join that team.”
Around 40 minutes away, in Lansing, Michigan Democrats were having their own state nominating convention and rallying to elect their candidates to office.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
