# Michigan Republican Party

The Michigan Republican Party is the state affiliate of the national Republican Party in Michigan, United States, sometimes referred to as MIGOP.
Ronna Romney McDaniel was the chairwoman of the party, having been elected in 2015 by delegates to the Republican State Convention, in 2017, McDaniel became Republican National Committee Chairwoman, serving until 2024. The Michigan Republican Party hosts a biennial political conference at the Mackinac Island Grand Hotel called the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference. The event features notable national Republicans, senators, governors, and presidential candidates.
Even though the Michigan Republican Party has historically been characterized by conservatism, the party took a hard-right turn after Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. After the 2020 United States elections, the Michigan Republican Party pushed false claims of fraud and sought to overturn the election results. A months-long Republican investigation found there was no evidence of widespread fraud and recommended for the attorney general to investigate some who had made such allegations for personal gain.

## History

Republicans have been elected to the governorship of Michigan in 27 of 48 gubernatorial elections. The first was Kingsley S. Bingham in 1855, and the most recent is Rick Snyder, who was elected in 2010, and then re-elected in 2014.
After President Richard Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal, Vice President Gerald Ford became the 38th President of the United States. Ford grew up in Grand Rapids and served as a U.S. Representative from Michigan from 1949 to 1973.
Following the 2016 election and Reince Priebus' selection to be White House Chief of Staff, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel became Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. Then-President-elect Trump recommended McDaniel in December 2016 to replace Priebus. She was officially elected as RNC chair on January 19, 2017, becoming the second woman to hold the post in RNC history, after Mary Louise Smith.
After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election in Michigan and Donald Trump refused to concede, the Michigan Republican Party pushed false claims of fraud and sought to overturn the election results. In January 2021, the Michigan Republican Party sought to replace GOP member Aaron Van Langevelde on the Michigan Board of Canvassers; he had previously voted to certify the Michigan election results in favor of Biden. One of the candidates that the Michigan Republican Party sought to nominate to that position was Linda Lee Tarver, who had been involved in efforts to overturn the election results.
According to the Associated Press, since Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election and Michigan swinging back to the Democrats, the Michigan GOP have taken a hard right-wing turn. The shift has altered the once moderate character of the state GOP and has instead embraced more right-wing elements. In 2021, the executive director of the Michigan GOP resigned after he declined to say that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump; delegates in the Michigan GOP had called for him to be fired for his remarks. Increasing internal divisions within the Michigan Republican Party led to a violent physical brawl at a state committee meeting in 2023, during which one party activist allegedly kicked a committee member in the groin and broke his rib.

## Current elected Republicans in Michigan
### Members of Congress
#### U.S. Senate

* None
Both of Michigan's U.S. Senate seats have been held by Democrats since 2001. Spencer Abraham was the last Republican to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. First elected in 1994, Abraham lost re-election in 2000 to Democrat Debbie Stabenow.

#### U.S. House of Representatives

Out of the 13 seats Michigan is apportioned in the U.S. House of Representatives, 7 are held by Republicans:
| District | Member |
| 1st | Jack Bergman |
| 2nd | John Moolenaar |
| 4th | Bill Huizenga |
| 5th | Tim Walberg |
| 7th | Tom Barrett |
| 9th | Lisa McClain |
| 10th | John James |

### Statewide

* None
Michigan has not elected any GOP candidates to statewide office since 2014, when Rick Snyder, Brian Calley, Bill Schuette, and Ruth Johnson were re-elected as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, respectively. In 2018, term limits prevented all four politicians from seeking third terms. Schuette ran as the Republican nominee in the 2018 gubernatorial election with Lisa Posthumus Lyons as his running mate and was subsequently defeated by Democratic challenger Gretchen Whitmer and running mate Garlin Gilchrist while Tom Leonard and Mary Treder Lang ran as the Republican nominees for Attorney General and Secretary of State and were subsequently defeated by Democratic challengers Dana Nessel and Jocelyn Benson.

### Michigan Legislature

* Senate Minority Leader: Aric Nesbitt
* Majority Leader of the Michigan House of Representatives: Bryan Posthumus
* Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives: Matt Hall

## United States cabinet members from Michigan who served under a Republican president

The following are in order of presidential succession.
| Name | Cabinet position | Years served | President(s) served under |
| Charles Erwin Wilson | Secretary of Defense | 1953–1957 | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Zachariah Chandler | Secretary of the Interior | 1875–1877 | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Roy D. Chapin | Secretary of Commerce | 1932–1933 | Herbert Hoover |
| Frederick H. Mueller | Secretary of Commerce | 1959–1961 | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| George W. Romney | Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | 1969–1973 | Richard Nixon |
| David Stockman | Director of Office of Management and Budget | 1981–1985 | Ronald Reagan |
| Spencer Abraham | Secretary of Energy | 2001–2005 | George W. Bush |
| Betsy DeVos | Secretary of Education | 2017–2021 | Donald Trump |
| Russell A. Alger | Secretary of War (obsolete) | 1897–1899 | William McKinley |
| Truman Handy Newberry | Secretary of the Navy (obsolete) | 1908–1909 | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Edwin Denby | Secretary of the Navy (obsolete) | 1921–1924 | Warren G. Harding |
| Edwin Denby | Secretary of the Navy (obsolete) | 1921–1924 | Calvin Coolidge |
| Arthur Summerfield | Postmaster General (obsolete) | 1953–1961 | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Ben Carson | Secretary of Housing & Urban Development | 2017–2021 | Donald Trump |

## Michigan Republican State Committee

The Michigan Republican State Committee is the state central committee of the Michigan Republican Party. It is composed of seven members from each of Michigan's Congressional district Republican committees, the Chairman, Co-Chairman, the various Vice Chairmen of the Party, and the Secretary, Treasurer and General and Financial Counsels. It selects Michigan's two representatives to the Republican National Committee. Additionally, the Chairperson of each County Republican Party organization is a non-voting ex officio member of the State Committee.

### Current leadership

| Position | Name |
| Chair | Jim Runestad |
| Co-Chair | Bernadette Smith |
| Grassroots Vice-Chair | Chris Long |
| Administrative Vice-Chair | Cheryl Constantino |
| Coalitions Vice-Chair | Susan Kokinda |
| Outreach Vice-Chair | Rola Makki |
| Ethnic Vice-Chair | Michael Farage |
| Youth Vice-Chair | Krish Mathrani |
| National Committeewoman | Hima Kolanagireddy |
| National Committeeman | Dr. Rob Steele |

### Chairmen of the Michigan Republican State Committee

| Name | Residence | Years served |
| Joseph Warren | Detroit | 1854–1855 |
| James M. Edmunds | Detroit | 1855–1861 |
| E. C. Walker | Detroit | 1861–1862 |
| William Alanson Howard | Detroit | 1862–1868 |
| Governor John J. Bagley | Detroit | 1868–1870 |
| Stephen D. Bingham | Lansing | 1870–1878 |
| George H. Hopkins | Detroit | 1878 |
| Zachariah Chandler | Detroit | 1878–1879 |
| James McMillan | Detroit | 1879–1880 |
| Governor Henry P. Baldwin | Detroit | 1880–1882 |
| Edward S. Lacey | Charlotte | 1882–1884 |
| Philip T. Van Zile | Charlotte | 1884–1886 |
| James McMillan | Detroit | 1886–1888 |
| George H. Hopkins | Detroit | 1888–1890 |
| James McMillan | Detroit | 1890–1896 |
| Dexter M. Ferry | Detroit | 1896–1898 |
| Arthur Marsh | Allegan | 1898–1900 |
| Gerrit J. Diekema | Holland | 1900–1910 |
| Frank Knox | Sault Ste. Marie | 1910–1912 |
| Governor Alex J. Groesbeck | Detroit | 1912–1914 |
| Gilman M. Dame | Northport | 1914–1916 |
| John D. Mangum | Marquette | 1916–1918 |
| Burt D. Cady | Port Huron | 1919–1925 |
| Kennedy L. Potter | Jackson | 1925–1927 |
| Gerrit J. Diekema | Holland | 1927–1929 |
| Howard C. Lawrence | Ionia and Saginaw | 1929–1937 |
| James Francis Thomson | Jackson | 1937–1940 |
| Leslie B. Butler | Lansing | 1940–1942 |
| John R. Dethmers | Holland | 1942–1945 |
| John A. Wagner | Battle Creek | 1945–1949 |
| Owen Cleary | Ypsilanti | 1949–1953 |
| John Feikens | Detroit | 1953–1957 |
| Lawrence Lindemer | Stockbridge | 1957–1961 |
| George Van Peursem | Zeeland | 1961–1963 |
| Arthur G. Elliott Jr. | Birmingham | 1963–1965 |
| Elly M. Peterson | Charlotte | 1965–1969 |
| William F. McLaughlin | Northville | 1969–1979 |
| Melvin L. Larson | Oxford | 1979–1983 |
| Spencer Abraham | East Lansing | 1983–1991 |
| David J. Doyle | Okemos | 1991–1995 |
| Susy Heintz (Avery) | Clinton Township | 1995–1996 |
| Betsy DeVos | Grand Rapids | 1996–2000 |
| Gerald Hills | East Lansing | 2000–2003 |
| Betsy DeVos | Grand Rapids | 2003–2005 |
| Saul Anuzis | Lansing | 2005–2009 |
| Ronald Weiser | Ann Arbor | 2009–2011 |
| Bobby Schostak | Oakland County | 2011–2015 |
| Ronna Romney McDaniel | Northville | 2015–2017 |
| Ronald Weiser | Ann Arbor | 2017–2019 |
| Laura Cox | Livonia | 2019–2021 |
| Ronald Weiser | Ann Arbor | 2021–2023 |
| Kristina Karamo | Detroit | 2023–2024 |
| Malinda Pego (acting) | Muskegon | 2024 |
| Pete Hoekstra | Holland | 2024–2025 |
| Jim Runestad | White Lake | 2025–present |