Kristina Karamo faces backlash from Michigan Republicans

Michigan GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo is facing backlash from her fellow party members, with a vote to potentially oust her on the horizon. Jonathan Oosting, capitol reporter for Bridge Michigan, sat down with MichMash host Cheyna Roth to unpack the in-party disagreements in the Michigan GOP.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode:

Kristina Karamo and the vote to oust her as Michigan GOP chair
Charges coming from the Lee Chatfield case
The major political stories coming in 2024

There has been a growing discontentment in the party with Karamo’s performance in her position, Oosting says. “You need 75% of the state committee, which is about 100 people, but you only need 50 to call the meeting. I think with them calling the meeting, they are pretty confident they have the votes to oust [Karamo],” he said. Karamo is not abiding to the calls for her resignation and is questioning the legality of the meeting. How did Karamo lose so much favor with her party and did she come into the position with a decent majority or was there always an issue with her having this position? The answer, Oosting says, is a gradual loss of support due to the party not raising enough money under her watch. “Big donors were leaving the party. They didn’t like Karamo or [Matthew] DePerno, but especially Karamo,” he said. “She said some very antagonizing things RINOs and the uniparty and a lot of this jargon we hear from far right or Trump purists. She vowed that she was going to woo small dollar donors, but it became clear the party was not raising funds.” If Karamo is ousted, and its recognized by a court, the co-chair, Malinda Pego, will take over temporarily. The state committee will then meet again to appoint a new chair. More from MichMash:

Support the podcasts you love.

One-of-a-kind podcasts from WDET bring you engaging conversations, news you need to know and stories you love to hear. Keep the conversations coming. Please make a gift today. Give now »

Author

Hernz Laguerre
Hernz Laguerre Jr. is a Multimedia Journalist at 101.9 WDET. He is one of the co-host for "Detroit Evening Report," one of the weekend anchors for "Weekend Edition," the producer for our political podcast, "MichMash," and reports on arts, culture and politics.
View all posts

Tags: government, Kristina Karamo, Michigan GOP, Michigan Legislature, Michigan Republicans