Donald Trump endorses Pete Hoekstra as Michigan GOP chairman

Lansing — Former President Donald Trump endorsed Pete Hoekstra as the Michigan Republican Party's chairman on Friday night, issuing a potentially devastating blow to Kristina Karamo's push to hold onto the job.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump, who's currently a heavy favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, said he looked forward to working with Hoekstra as chairman of the Michigan GOP. In recent days, Hoekstra and Karamo have been battling for control of the state party, and there's an ongoing lawsuit on the subject in Kent County.

"Pete will make the Republican Party of Michigan great again and has my complete and total endorsement to be its chairman," Trump wrote about his former U.S. ambassador to The Netherlands.

It wasn't immediately clear what prompted Trump to intervene in an intense fight among Michigan Republicans over the chair position. Both factions of the party are dominated by supporters of the former president, meaning his comments could be influential.

In a text message Friday night, Karamo said Trump's endorsement "absolutely" doesn't change anything.

But Jason Roe, a longtime Republican political consultant and former executive director of the Michigan GOP, said Trump's endorsement would likely mean the end of Karamo's hold on the state party.

"Karamo and her allies can no longer claim that they are the heirs of MAGA, fighting for the future of the country and against the globalists and the uni-party," Roe said. "Their leader has spoken."

Hoekstra is a former member of the U.S. House, where he represented west Michigan and served from 1993 to 2011.

Michigan Republican Party delegates elected Karamo, a former secretary of state candidate, to be the state GOP's chairwoman in February 2023. But her year in the position has been devoured by fundraising struggles — the party had about $35,000 in its bank accounts in August — and internal divisions.

Opponents of Karamo on the Michigan Republican Party's state committee circulated petitions to call for a special meeting and held a gathering on Jan. 6, when 40 members voted to oust her as chairwoman. Two weeks later, the Karamo opponents selected Hoekstra to be her replacement.

Hoekstra's backers have said they hope he can unite the party and bring donors who previously bankrolled its operations back into the fold. In a statement on Wednesday, Hoekstra declared Trump the presumptive Republican nominee, despite former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's continuing to seek GOP votes.

"If we unify and deliver Michigan for Donald Trump, he will be the 47th President of the United States. That is the mission," Hoekstra said. "As chairman of the Michigan GOP, I am putting together an operation that will do just that.”

Karamo and her supporters have argued that the other faction's meetings were illegitimate and out of compliance with party bylaws. Karamo led a meeting on Jan. 13, when 59 state committee members voted to keep her as chairwoman.

In a social media post before Trump's endorsement announcement, Karamo vowed that she would continue to work to "transform" the Michigan Republican Party.

During an appearance on WKAR-TV's "Off The Record" Friday, Hoekstra said believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory would be "welcome" to pursue party positions under his leadership.

The term "QAnon" generally refers to a theory that falsely claims "the world is run by a secret cabal of pedophiles who worship Satan and are plotting" against Trump, according to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that works to combat White supremacy.

Questioned on Friday how he would respond to someone who believes in QAnon asking him if they should run for a position chairing a district-level Republican committee within the party, Hoekstra replied, "They're welcome to run."

Hoekstra clarified that his response wasn't that the person should run, but he would say, "You are welcome to run."

"Are people welcome to come into the party and compete for positions?" Hoekstra added. "Absolutely."

cmauger@detroitnews.com