Former Michigan GOP chairwoman Kristina Karamo made her latest legal bid Sunday to return to leadership of the state party.
Karamo asked the state court of appeals to overturn a county circuit judge’s February ruling that said she was rightfully removed by the state party’s executive committee in January. The Detroit News reported on Monday that Karamo’s lawyer requested that the court expedite her appeal, given the approaching national GOP convention on July 16 and early-August primary elections.
In January, the Republican National Committee and former president Donald Trump endorsed Pete Hoekstra — a former Michigan congressman and ambassador to the Netherlands during the Trump administration — to replace Karamo as chairman.
In a statement to National Review Monday evening, Karamo said the January 6 executive committee meeting that ousted her was invalid.
“Pete Hoekstra and his conservative-imposter handlers and operatives spent last year sabotaging the Michigan Republican Party,” Karamo said in a text message, “because he and the failed status quo he represents do not want to see progress and growth in the Republican Party.”
With Election Day fewer than five months away, legal challenges could hinder the state party’s election-year preparations. With a swing state and an open U.S. Senate seat in the balance, Hoekstra is aiming to bring back major donors and build up the GOP ground game.
Hoekstra told NR in a statement on Monday that there is “no time for distractions.”
“The Michigan Republican Party is united around one singular mission — electing Republicans up and down the ballot this November,” Hoekstra said. “The grassroots state committee, donors, and elected officials are all supporting this state party and we’re working as a team.”
As Audrey and I reported earlier this month, on Karamo:
The failed 2022 secretary of state nominee’s eleven-month tenure as state party chairwoman was defined by poor communication, party infighting, lackluster fundraising, and spiraling debt. . . .
Hoekstra tells NR that he and his team did not receive the party’s financial records from Karamo’s staff until “just before” he filed his first FEC report as chairman in April, which reflected an outstanding debt of $184,000. “Even then, we weren’t sure all the books were accurate,” Hoekstra tells NR. The chairman said last month he is launching a “comprehensive audit” of his party’s own finances and that he “fully expects” to have to release corrections of past reports. . . .
As Republicans play catchup in the organizational department, Karamo’s old adversaries are counting their blessings that they have a new party leader to right the ship. “Even locally, a lot of people were holding their breath and holding their wallet,” under her leadership, says Anne DeLisle, Michigan GOP’s eighth congressional district chair. “What Pete has done has just inspired confidence that the money is going to be used properly and that it’s going to be used to win elections.”
Karamo told NR on Monday that she had “credible evidence that Hoekstra’s operatives began the process of trying to create false perceptions regarding FEC reports” before the February ruling. “Pete Hoekstra will be exposed,” she said.
Karamo did not immediately respond to a request for the “credible evidence” she referenced.
On the Sunday legal challenge, Tyson Shephard, executive director for the state party, told NR, “How Kristina Karamo chooses to waste her time and money is up to her!”