Rebandt: “If allowed to continue, it will ensure that another chapter is added to the long list of elections butchered by the Michigan Republican Party.”
LANSING — The Republican primary for governor is continuing to be a messy and chaotic race to the right, and now gubernatorial candidate Ralph Rebandt is sounding off on the Michigan Republican Party in a new video where he says that “infighting within our party leaders is undermining the integrity of selecting our party’s nominee for governor.”
It comes as Rebandt has been excluded from the gubernatorial panel at this weekend’s Eighth Congressional District Republican Party Annual Roundup.
Rebandt: “Here are the facts: I finished second in the straw poll conducted immediately after the conclusion of the third debate, I received more votes than John James, Mike Cox, Tom Leonard, Karla Wagner, and Anthony Hudson, and more votes than Cox and James combined. Those votes came from Michigan Republicans, grassroots Republicans, the very people our party should represent. Yet the Eighth Congressional District Committee and its Chairwoman have decided to keep me off the stage at this weekend’s gubernatorial candidate roundup. In doing so, she’s effectively keeping the ideas Michigan Republicans overwhelmingly endorsed in Traverse City on the sidelines.
“So I have to ask, what are they afraid of? This is not transparency. This is not unity. It is exactly the kind of irresponsible and pointless infighting that has plagued our state party and has led to cycle after cycle of failure. If allowed to continue, it will ensure that another chapter is added to the long list of elections butchered by the Michigan Republican Party.”
The straw poll that Rebandt is referring to was conducted by the Leelanau County Republican Party—where James only got two votes and lost out to the “none of the above” option, which got five votes. James also came in a distant fourth place in the straw poll that took place during the Michigan GOP’s Mackinac Island conference, and he lost another straw poll conducted by the Michigan 9th Congressional District Republicans in September.
The GOP primary for governor is “up for grabs” as James has “split” the Michigan Republican Party and drawn the ire of prominent Michigan Republicans. James’ campaign has been described as “adrift,” “sloppy,” and “inexperienced.”
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