Dear members of the Republican Party of Menominee County, Michigan

Casey Hoffman and I, Robert Smith, attended the Republican Party of Michigan’s convention in Lansing.  As people delegated to represent your needs and values, we are obligated to justify our votes to the Menominee Republicans, and report news and events of interest.  A lot happened.  This is the first of several posts from participants in the process.

We might have witnessed a major shift in Republican party politics that could affect the 2024 presidential race.  It’s too early to tell for certain.  The totality and direction of shifts in party leadership over those eleven hours of the convention leave us wondering what happened.  Casey and I walked into the convention expecting to end the day with a party under strong MAGA control.  When we walked out, the hard core MAGA candidates had under performed.  The photo below shows the winners.  I think the outcome was largely unplanned, but it contradicts nearly every criticism the woke and mainstream media level at us.

• Karamo’s victory raises the question of whether it was also a rejection of Trump.  Maybe it was.  There are still many among the leadership who seemed to support Trump in the past.  After the convention, I heard a credible witness describe an incident that suggests Karamo might distance us from Trump.  I checked the Karamo campaign platform for party chair on the web and her thank you note to the delegates.  I  found no mention of Trump or “election integrity” which is in contrast to her website for secretary of state.  So let’s see.
• Ali Hossein, Bernadette Smith, and Hassan Nehme were awarded their offices because they had no competitors.  You cannot discern much about the convention’s views from their platforms.
• The other vice chair candidates won by getting over 50 % of the votes in the first round of voting. 
• The chief concern among some with Karamo is that she may be a loose cannon and has said some verifiably strange things. 

What Was Our Mission?

John Anderson, our county chair, had had long political conversations with Casey and I and was satisfied that we had Menominee-focused conservative views.  When we were elected as delegates, Leon Felch at the head table recommended that we vote for Scott Greenlee.  So we stayed with Greenlee and party unity through the second ballot.  Greenlee was out on the third ballot, so we picked the candidate whose platform was closest to Greenlee, which was Karamo. 

That was not much guidance, so we assumed other top priorities were conservative family values, protect our children, and a candidate’s strategic vision to win back political power in Michigan during the 2024 election.  Casey who campaigned door to door for the August primary had a much stronger grounding in current Republican values.

What Happened

Day 1, 1^st Congressional District Committee Caucus

On Friday evening February 17, delegates from the 1^st Congressional District (Jack Bergman’s district) met to select the leadership for the middle ground party organization between the county and state organizations. 

The caucus was marred by a MAGA faction’s political games that repeated the same undemocratic dictatorial shenanigans that the old guard used to play before they fell out of power.  In doing so they lost moral credibility.

During the discussion of the caucus rules, the MAGA faction motioned for us to accept an alternate set of rules that would elect their hand-picked slate of candidates.  It was obvious that most candidates were chosen for their strong pro-Trump views.  The candidate they picked for Menominee was chosen for his knowledge of election integrity, a marginal issue for Menominee County that went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016 and 2020.  The faction did not consult our county leadership about the change and whether their choice represented our views.  Two Menominee candidates who they discarded, were multi-generation Menominee county natives, held mainstream Menominee views and values, and both had extensive links throughout the county and could authoritatively act as our voice.

We lost the rules vote, and the faction got its slate.  The next day I spoke to other 1^st District delegates.  They expected to organize a push back against the shenanigans.  One who had been elected by the slate, might resign his post in protest.

Steve Yoder, the caucus chair, made a questionable move.  Before we convened, he said that campaigning could happen before and after the caucus meeting but not during.  He did have a special guest speaker scheduled who turned out to be Mike Lindell (Mr. Pillow) who gave a blatant endorsement for DePerno. 

Day 2, The Republican Convention

The convention opened with a lot of uncertainty.  There were 2,186 delegates and 1,375 alternates.  Following Robert’s Rules of Order, we addressed convention rules early in the morning.  The first challenge was to change from hand ballot that offered a degree of anonymity to a system where they could monitor exactly how each delegate voted on each ballot.  The argument was that as delegates it should be public record how we voted.  Casey and I opposed the rule change because of worrisome things that happened the night before at our caucus. 

The change was defeated because it didn’t muster the two thirds majority needed to pass, a requirement of Robert’s Rules.  Many delegates felt cheated because it did get over 50 percent of the votes.

Next there were a series of amendments which all sounded like pages out of J D Glaser’s parliamentary training including an attempt to unseat the chair. 

The amendments were crushed by the convention who supported the chair.  The political games irked the convention.  No one voiced the opinion, but these votes might have turned the convention against Glaser.  JD lost on the first ballot and performed far worse than we expected him to do.

After hours of to-and-fro, we reached the nominating speeches.  After the first few speeches I stayed on the convention floor while Casey gathered information, networked, and schmoozed, which is another task of delegates.  Casey already knew a lot of the candidates and issues after attending a “meet the candidates” night at Kingsford, Dickinson County, in January.  We needed his people skills to get information and friends for Menominee.  I ensured that Casey made the votes and back briefed him on what he missed before he voted.  As you can guess, politicians take a very long time to say very little so my back briefs were quick. 

To simplify the story, I need to present the candidates in reverse order with those for vice chair first.

• For outreach vice chair, the convention chose Rola Makki a Lebanese immigrant whose family fled the civil war; got here as a young child; and well-spoken in American dialect English.  She had a compelling story about repeatedly standing alone to protect our family values.  If you want a candidate who would fight tooth and nail to uphold those values, I think it would be Rola.  Makki won by 66 percent on the first round which means a lot of conservative Republicans felt good about her. 

• Rylee Linting ran for youth vice chair.  She had a well-organized and disciplined campaign; professional, polished, excellent communications skills, showed dignity and maturity when faced with a personal attack.  I thought she had the best website of any candidate.  This is important because we need someone who can communicate with us long distance.  Beat a Trump-Lindell anointed opponent in the first round. 
  • We need to keep an eye on Rylee. She did a lot of little things right. Let’s give her a year to settle into her job and learn it. Then start considering her for positions of greater trust and responsibility. Maybe it was beginner’s luck but keep her in mind.

• Marian Sheridan (incumbent) had a good, well-organized campaign, spoke well.

The Election for Party Chair

There were a lot of candidates who received few votes, and I’m not going to review their platforms.  Two people to write off your political list: 

• Scott Aughney was the first nominee to speak and torched his own campaign by openly insulting the audience. 
• Lena Epstein impressed Casey and I by her speech at Kingsford.  When she used her nomination speech to endorse DePerno, I lost all faith.  DePerno was a mismatch for the values she championed at Kingsford.  I also met her at the August convention.  There is always the air of a rich person trying to pad her reputation with the country club set.

So let’s talk Matt DePerno.  I heard DePerno speak at Kingsford and his platform seemed too focused on election integrity.  During the convention, he stayed focused on the election integrity that has little support outside of MAGA circles and many would say is a political liability.  None of that helps Menominee in the near term and may not even help in the long term. 

JD Glaser also endorsed DePerno after he lost on the first vote.  JD is an expert computer programmer and top-notch parliamentarian but is fixated on rules and as the rules vote suggests lacks political judgement.  People following his play book at the convention embarrassed themselves.  I heard him and his co-chair present at Kingsford.  The co-chair is a threat to good paying jobs in Menominee.  He is very anti-globalization.  I understand where he’s coming from, and I have doubts about globalization.  However, I’ve talked to a former factory manager in Marinette and looked at who finances a lot of industrial jobs in the Twin Cities.  We are deeply linked to the global economy.  JD’s bull-in-a-china-closet co-chair could ruin us.

Karamo and Malinda Pego.  Karamo is a political newbie and has said some strange things BUT I think she’s learning from her mistakes and improving her message.  Her nomination speech said the right things about party unity, improving finances, and protecting our values.  She’s a dynamic speaker and really wins over the audience.  During the August convention, I think she got the warmest reception of any candidate.  My hesitation is she has never won a major political race or has ever run a big organization, was underfinanced in her last race, and might be a loose cannon.  We need to give her some time and space before we pass judgement.  We also need to verify the rumors we hear about her actions because I suspect she will face a lot of back stabbers.

Scott Greenlee, a professional political consultant, helped win over 100 races.  His platform was party unity to regain power in Michigan, good finances, professional adult behavior, and likes quoting Ronald Reagan.

After the first ballot, a big field of candidates narrowed down to the top three: DePerno, Greenlee, and Karamo.  Greenlee received strong support in our 1^st District.  He graciously came over to thank us.  I was surprised that Greenlee made it to the second ballot because he is weak on MAGA themes.

The Last Ballot

The convention was running very late.  We faced a hard ceiling that we needed to be done by 8 p.m.  We all lined up to vote while awaiting the results of the second ballot.  Casey and I stood with a crowd of Greenlee supporters and hoped.  Word came that it was DePerno and Karamo.  We all looked at each other asking what to do.  I pointed out that Karamo was closest to Greenlee so we went for Karamo.  Later, we heard Greenlee endorsed Karamo. 

By then our job was almost done, it was almost 8 p.m. and we were worried that the restaurants would close before we ate dinner (we had no lunch break).  We agreed that Casey could leave to meet his spouse while I stayed back to collect the results.  As planned, I passed them on to Casey who called our leadership to brief them on the outcome, and the recent events.  After an 11-hour day, we were all tired and just glad it was over.  I don’t remember cheers or groans of disgust.  Delegates around me seemed willing to accept the results but I had a worm’s eye view.

We picked up other information we need to pass on later this week, but the convention was the big story.