Donald Trump Ally Wins Critical Vote Amid Michigan GOP Revolt

Pete Hoekstra, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands under former President Donald Trump, has been elected as the leader of a faction of the Michigan Republican Party, which is attempting to legally wrestle control of the organization from embattled chairwoman Kristina Karamo.

In a January 6 vote, 40 members of the Michigan GOP's state committee backed a motion to remove Karamo, who Trump previously supported, as chair over concerns regarding her ability to move the party forward and her failure to improve its reported $500,000 debt. Karamo has not accepted the results of that vote, and the Michigan GOP faction filed a lawsuit Friday in a bid to establish themselves as the legitimate state party, The Detroit News reported.

On Saturday, the faction of the Michigan GOP convened in Lansing to choose a would-be successor to Karamo, according to local media reports. Vance Patrick, the current chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party who was also running to lead the state party, confirmed to Newsweek on Saturday that Hoekstra won that vote after a member of Trump's entourage gave him a call.

"My team and I took a call from a member of President Trump's team after the first vote. The message was that in a head to head match between Lena and Pete, they preferred Pete," Patrick said, referring to Hoekstra and former congressional candidate Lena Epstein, who was also in the running for the post. "The second vote was 50 to 22 in Pete's favor."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for additional comment.

Hoekstra served Michigan's 2nd District in the House of Representatives from 1993 until 2011. He was then appointed by Trump to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, a post he held from January 2018 until January 2021. He was born in Groningen, Netherlands, but relocated to the U.S. with his parents as a young child.

"The national party needs to recognize this group," Hoekstra said Saturday, The Detroit News reported. "When we are recognized then we've got to come together as a team and say, 'What work has been done on the presidential caucuses and the primary and what still needs to be done?'"

He added: "It's a tremendous amount of work in the next 40-45 days. We can't get to the primary and have two factions claiming to be the Republican Party."

A spokesperson for the Michigan Republican Party led by Karamo rejected the results of the Saturday vote in an email to Newsweek.

"Chairwoman Kristina Karamo was reaffirmed by a majority of the Michigan Republican Party State Committee members at the special State Committee meeting held on January 13," the spokesperson wrote. Karamo was first elected last February after an unsuccessful bid to become Michigan secretary of state in 2022.

Hoekstra's and the GOP faction's legitimacy hinges on the decision in the case filed on Friday at the Kent County Circuit Court, according to The Detroit News. The Republican National Committee (RNC) would also have to affirm the decision.

Newsweek reached out to the RNC via email for comment.

Hoekstra touted Trump as the key voice that could cement his Saturday victory, and his faction's control of the state party.

"This Trump team is probably better than anyone we've ever seen before in terms of organizing and getting the vote out," he said, The Detroit News reported. "I think they know what happened here today and I think they know what they need to do."