Trump Ally Faces Republican Revolt in Michigan

Michigan Republican Party chairwoman Kristina Karamo, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, is facing a revolt from members of her own party.

Karamo, whose failed 2022 campaign for Michigan secretary of state was endorsed by Trump, has been accused of causing financial turmoil and disenfranchising party members since being elected as state chair in February. Dozens of state party committee members, who largely also support Trump, have called for a special meeting to discuss her possible removal from leadership next week.

A report commissioned by former state committee member Warren Carpenter, who is also a former supporter of Karamo, claimed that the party was on "the brink of bankruptcy" due to Karamo's "failed leadership," according to MLive.Com. Other committee members denounced Karamo and expressed regrets for past support in a CNN report published on Wednesday.

"If I would have known that Kristina Karamo would have turned out to be such a tyrannical incompetent dumpster fire I would never have worked so hard to get her elected," said state committee member Dawn Beattie. "For that I apologize."

Bree Moeggenberg, another state committee member, told CNN that Karamo's quest to reshape the party in her image and rid it of so-called "RINOs" (Republicans in Name Only) had "disenfranchised" a wide range of members.

"She's disenfranchised us," Moeggenberg said. "She has pushed the RINO's per se away. She has pushed all sides of establishment away. She has pushed grassroots away."

Others have expressed concerns that Republicans are likely to fare worse in the 2024 election under Karamo's leadership. Karamo lost her own 2022 race to Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson by a decisive 14-point margin.

"I believe that Chair Kristina Karamo is not capable of building the infrastructure that is needed to deliver victory for our Presidential, US Senate, and down- ballot Republican nominees," Oakland Country Republican Party chair Vance Patrick said in a statement released earlier this month.

"Because of this, I am urging the MIGOP State Committee to vote to remove Kristina Karamo from her position as Chair of the Michigan Republican Party," he added.

Newsweek reached out for comment to Karamo via email on Thursday.

Karamo reportedly suggested that "the deep state" was blame for the party's woes during a meeting in October. Some members of the party are supporting her leadership.

Ken Beyer, the chair of the party's fourth congressional district committee told CNN that Karamo's detractors are "pulling the rug out from under Kristina and then they are going, 'Look, she fell,'" concluding that "they caused the problem and then blamed Kristina."

Karamo, a former community college professor, became the state party chair after months of refusing to concede her 2022 election loss, which she claims without evidence was the result of massive fraud.

In 2018, she ran a failed 2018 campaign for a place on the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. However, her political career gained steam after serving as a poll watcher in the 2020 presidential election, when she claimed to have personally witnessed election irregularities.

Although Karamo's status as a leading proponent of Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was "stolen" likely won her an endorsement and GOP nomination for secretary of state, the ex-president withdrew his support when she ran for state GOP chair.

Trump's endorsed candidate, failed former Michigan attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, is also a proponent of election fraud conspiracy theories and was charged with four felonies in August for allegedly trying to illegally access voting machines following the 2020 election.