Michigan GOP needs new leader, looks to maintain momentum

The beginning of 2024 was marked by turmoil within the Michigan Republican Party.

Infighting and complaints over the leadership of former party Chair Kristina Karamo led to a mutiny and Karamo’s ouster.

Enter former Congressman Pete Hoekstra. He took over leadership and got the party back on track, getting donor money flowing again. The GOP took back the Michigan House and Donald Trump won Michigan on his way to winning a return to the White House.

For his part, Hoekstra — the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term — is being rewarded with the Ambassadorship to Canada.

That leaves a vacancy for Michigan GOP Chair.

Longtime Republican political consultant Scott Greenlee announced his candidacy last week.

In an interview with WDET, Greenlee said he plans to build on some relationships made in 2024.

“You’ve got to be able to expand the party,” Greenlee said. “You’ve got to be able to have at least an honest level of communication with the different parts of the Republican Party to be effective, to get everyone working together.”

Part of working together means being able to bring in money.

“You’ve got to be able to put together a strategic plan that will motivate the donors to invest in the vision and give the grass roots, if you will, the juice to get out and do their job,” Greenlee said.

2026 marks a big year in politics both here in Michigan and nationally. It’s a midterm election, and historically the balance of power switches in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 2010, Democrats were in power of Congress and the Presidency. In Michigan, Democrat Jennifer Granholm was ending her final term.

National and state Republicans swept into power at the height of the anti-Obama Tea Party movement. Greenlee says he was involved in that effort and thinks the GOP can do it again.

I want to take the experience of getting everybody involved (in 2010), of empowering delegates at the local level, of having a lot of local support so that local people can use their knowledge and be effective on the ground in their particular communities, and again, expand the party so that folks understand the Republican vision and what that can do for Michigan,” Greenlee said.

This week marked four years since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on pardoning the over 1,000 people who have been convicted of crimes related to the attack.

Greenlee says he supports the pardons… for some, adding that there were a lot of people there who weren’t necessarily doing anything wrong.

“I think that anybody who did commit a crime — anybody who hit anyone or or what have you — they should be held accountable,” he said. “And I think they will. I think that his comments were directed toward people who were just in the vicinity and in the building.”

“If you did nothing wrong, in our society, there’s this pardon process that exists, and I think it will be appropriate for that to be used in many of those occasions.”

Trump has used the pardon process for people who did things wrong — including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Trump pardoned Kilpatrick just over six years into a 28-year sentence.

In a news conference this week Trump evaded questions on whether he would pardon rioters that attack police. Over 140 officers were injured in the attack.

State Sen. Jim Runestad, former MIGOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, and former U.S. Ambassador to Fiji Joseph Cella have all announced they are seeking the position.

Maddock is seeking the job, despite facing fraud charges related to being a fake elector — perpetuating the lie that Trump won the 2020 election.

Republicans will choose their new leader at the party convention on Feb. 22.