Michigan GOP sobers up with 'tough' election challenge ahead

NOVI, Mich. — Top Michigan Republicans voiced new optimism over the weekend about their party's chances in the November election, despite historical trends and national polling that point to possible trouble ahead for the GOP.

The Republicans said they were specifically motivated by the results of a Saturday convention in Novi, where about 2,100 delegates from the across the state gathered and rejected a set of candidates with backgrounds that might have posed clear problems in the fall campaign against the Democrats.

Instead, the delegates endorsed Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini for secretary of state and Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd for attorney general. Both Forlini and Lloyd have experience in winning elections and running in competitive areas, two biographical details that the party delegates haven't emphasized in recent years when they picked outsiders to represent Republicans on the ballot.

The choices came as thousands of anti-Trump protesters gathered at 120 No Kings rallies in Michigan and hundreds more around the country to criticize the administration's policies ― from the U.S.-Israel war against Iran to surging gasoline prices to aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation tactics.

The Republican convention, which was low on infighting, restored delegate Brad Pittman's faith in the process, he said as he walked out of the Vibe Credit Union Showplace after the six-hour meeting.

"I think the overarching theme is that we're unified in our candidates," said Pittman, who lives in Rockford.

Over the last six years, past Michigan Republican Party conventions have been rocked by procedural motions and disputes between party leadership and the party's grassroots wing.

In 2022, delegates nominated — amid intense infighting — two political newcomers who had focused on questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Republican Donald Trump lost. Those two candidates, Matt DePerno for attorney general and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state, were defeated by wide margins in the November 2022 election.

On Saturday, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said the convention showed state Republicans were nominating candidates who can win in November.

"They've learned from the past," Hall said.

Republican activists recognize 'that losing sucks'

The stakes are high for both Michigan Democrats and Republicans in this fall's election, and Saturday's convention provided the first significant indicator of the GOP's approach.

Michigan voters will elect a new governor, a new U.S. senator, a new attorney general and a new secretary of state in November, while picking candidates for every seat in the state Legislature. Republicans are hoping to hold on to their slim majorities in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, with Democrats looking to pick up two swing House seats in Macomb County and the Lansing area.

President Trump's poll numbers are lagging, as gas prices remain high and as the country wages a war against Iran, despite Trump vowing to bring peace as a candidate in 2024.

Plus, the party that holds the White House usually struggles in the midterm election. Two years into Trump's first term, in 2018, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer won the governor's office, while Democrat Jocelyn Benson became the secretary of state, and Democrat Dana Nessel secured the attorney general's job.

All three can't run again for those positions this fall because of term limits.

Jason Cabel Roe, a Republican consultant and convention delegate from Oakland County, acknowledged it's a "tough environment" and there's "absolutely nothing" Michigan Republicans can do about the federal government's decisions.

Conditions could improve politically for Republicans with oil prices declining and shocks to the economy dissipating, Roe said. But troops are being sent to the Middle East for possible fighting, and the price of gas and food could rise, Roe said.

"There's nothing that candidate quality or money is going to paper over in that environment," Roe said.

Many Republicans said the party could have nominated more problematic candidates for attorney general and secretary of state than they did. Backing Forlini and Lloyd was a "recognition that losing sucks," Roe said.

"I think it shows sobriety," Roe said. "I might even go as far as to say maturity."

Regina Wilk, a delegate from Oakland County, was among the Republicans happy with the results of the convention as it concluded.

"They're awesome candidates," Wilk said of Forlini and Lloyd. "They've got on-the-job experience."

Michigan Democrats still blasted the picks, with the state party chairman, Curtis Hertel Jr., saying they would do "Trump's bidding."

Why Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini won

Delegates picked Forlini as their secretary of state nominee in the first round of voting.

The veteran politician from Harrison Township got about 55% of the support, while 25% went to Oakland County businesswoman and activist Monica Yatooma, and 19% went to Clarkston school board member Amanda Love, according to the preliminary results.

Forlini needed a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff, a benchmark he achieved to the surprise of many in the convention hall.

Republicans contended Saturday that Forlini, who has won two countywide clerk races in Michigan's third-largest county, gave the party the best chance to flip the secretary of state's office in November.

"People in Macomb County, I can tell you, which is a purple county, really, are looking for somebody to work hard, just do their job, put politics aside," Forlini told reporters of his approach.

Forlini has been the chief elections official in Macomb County since 2021 and previously served as a state representative.

"He's the most electable," said former state Rep. Pete Lund, a delegate from Macomb County.

Love had publicly been criticized by her own sister. And Yatooma's campaign had signs at the convention calling for Benson's arrest, along with a cardboard cutout of Yatooma next to Benson in a prison jumpsuit. Some convention delegates posed for photos with the Benson imprisonment display.

Asked about it, Forlini said his campaign was there "to show a positive message."

Who is Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd?

In the attorney general contest, 63% of the GOP delegates picked Lloyd over lawyer and political newcomer Kevin Kijewski of Birmingham, who got 37%, according to the initial results.

"I've been elected," Lloyd said of his experience. "I've actually done the job. I'm walking into that job day one, able to move forward."

Kijewski, who primarily has worked on family-related and divorce cases, gained the political spotlight among Republicans by defending one of the GOP electors who signed a certificate falsely claiming Trump won the state's 2020 election against forgery charges.

In 2023, Nessel's office charged the electors. But a judge threw out the charges last year.

Yet, the details of a 2020 domestic violence charge against Kijewski, which was eventually dismissed by prosecutors in Wayne County, loomed over his campaign. Some Republicans argued the situation would be devastating in a general election race against a Democratic prosecutor.

Republican delegate Michael Brown, the clerk in Berrien County's Lincoln Township, backed both Forlini and Lloyd, touting their experience.

"They've won elections in decent-sized counties," Brown said.

The path ahead for Michigan Republicans

Primary voters from both parties will select nominees for governor, U.S. Senate and seats in the state Legislature in the August election. Democrats will pick their own nominees for attorney general and secretary of state at a convention on April 19.

Michigan U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, decided not to seek re-election, leaving his seat open. Whitmer is term-limited and can't run again.

Lund, the Republican from Shelby Township, said he believed ex-Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's independent bid for governor will help the GOP up and down the ballot in Michigan. Duggan is a former Democrat.

"I think a lot of people, more Democrats than Republicans, will, instead of voting straight ticket, vote for him," Lund said.

Lund said he feels "pretty good" about Republicans' chances.

A crowded field of Republicans is seeking the party's nomination for governor, and all of them were present at Saturday's convention.

Three of the gubernatorial hopefuls — U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township, businessman Perry Johnson of Bloomfield Hills and pastor Ralph Rebandt of Farmington Hills — even addressed the crowd from the stage. In the weeks before the convention, the party had advertised speaking slots in exchange for donations.

Asked about the weak poll numbers for Republicans nationally, James told reporters that polling in the governor's race actually showed him winning.

"We do have a lot of work to do, and this is the reason I came back here," James said of his trip from Washington, D.C., where U.S. House members were voting a day earlier.

Another Republican candidate for governor, former Attorney General Mike Cox of Livonia, acknowledged the national mood was "a little sour."

But Cox contended Republicans have an advantage on state issues.

"We have an affordability problem here," Cox said of Michigan. "And that's created by the government spending $30 billion more than it did just seven years ago."

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad told reporters the results of the convention on Saturday showed that Republicans were focused on winning in November.

"There was a hyper focus on 'we want to win the cycle,'" Runestad said. "And that's more than I've heard in the last couple of conventions. I'm excited about that."

In the past, the state party has struggled to raise money.

Runestad, a state senator from White Lake Township, said the selections of Forlini and Lloyd might help combat that problem.

"I have been hearing from donors across the spectrum," Runestad said. "They said, 'If the right candidates were elected, then we will step up.'"

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