LANSING — In case you missed it, the Sunday edition of the New York Times exposed just how much chaos the Michigan Republican Party is in less than a week from the GOP state convention.
The piece, ‘Trump’s Focus on 2020 Election Splits Michigan Republicans’, goes into detail on how much of a hold Trump and his 2020 Big Lie have on Michigan Republicans and the deep infighting and divisions it has created within the party.
MI GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock’s extremes shine through in the piece, with emphasis on the chaos she has created by endorsing Trump-backed candidates in the primaries despite party chairs’ long-held tradition of remaining neutral during primaries. In what feels like a nearly daily occurrence, Maddock continues to publicly brag about her close ties with Trump and repeats his distorted Big Lie sentiments about Michigan as a way to rally (and push away) supporters, while trying to keep alive the distorted narrative of the 2020 election.
NYT reporters Nick Corasaniti and Jazmine Ulloa write in part:
“…In Michigan and other battleground states, Mr. Trump’s chosen candidates have become megaphones for his election claims — frustrating some Republicans who view a preoccupation with the 2020 election as a losing message in 2022.
“…The root of the rupture in Michigan can, in part, be traced to endorsements made by Meshawn Maddock, a co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party and a Trump confidante. The Republican Party leadership has traditionally stayed out of statewide races, especially before the state convention. But Ms. Maddock endorsed Ms. Karamo and Mr. DePerno.
“… Republican candidates facing Mr. DePerno and Ms. Karamo were taken aback by the endorsements and were outraged at the meddling by the state party leadership before the convention. Ms. Maddock, some candidates charged, appeared to be trying to tip the scales in favor of Trump-backed candidates.”
Yet in all of this spectacle, MI’s GOP party leadership still isn’t doing enough in the eyes of the extremist, far-right. In order to appease their false narrative that the election was stolen, Michigan Republicans are now having to create a grand compromise of introducing an audit and hand count of ballots at their state convention, where Dominion voting machines will be used to decide the GOP nominee for state Attorney General and Secretary of State.
The horrifying truth is how the MI GOP continues to inflame and give a stage to a mob stuck in a false past under the direction of former President Trump.
Instead of looking forward, the leadership of an entire state’s party is bending-over-back to prioritize the dangerous, anti-democratic talking points of 2020.
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