Sarah Rice for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Michigan Republicans can't seem to get past 2020, a hangup that could spell trouble for the GOP based on the party's recent performance in key races.
According to a Washington Post-Monmouth University poll, 64% of Michigan Republicans say President Joe Biden only won the 2020 election as a result of voter fraud. That's more Republicans than in the key early states of New Hampshire (55%) and South Carolina (57%).
Even worse, the Michigan Republican party is reeling in a way the GOP is not in those states. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer romped to reelection in 2022. While down the ballot, Democrats pulled off a trifecta for the first time in almost 40 years. Michigan voters also approved an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution, one of a string of embarrassing defeats for anti-abortion activists in the wake of Roe v. Wade's reversal.
The results in Michigan mirrored what was seen across the country: a post-Roe fury that seemed exacerbated by candidates who made raising questions about the 2020 election central to their cause.
Right now, the Michigan GOP is embroiled in infighting as some Republicans seek to oust Chairwoman Kristina Karamo, whose secretary of state race was closely watched due to her election denialism. Michigan Secretary Democrat Jocelyn Benson beat Karamo by double digits. She was elected chair less than a year ago.
One of Karamo's critics has alleged her actions have put the state party "at an imminent risk of defaulting on its line of credit and potentially needing to declare bankruptcy." Karamo previously got into hot water after the state party's official accounts posted memes linking the Holocaust to gun control in a bid to sink Democrats' efforts at a shooting at Michigan State. Karamo has blamed her predecessors for the party's financial situation and for trying to foment her ouster.
"Absolutely," Karamo recently told a local radio show of the state party being ready for the presidential race. "What it is, you have a small group of disgruntled individuals angry about how we're going to resolve that debt. But absolutely, we are prepared for that day."
Former President Donald Trump's victory in 2016, smashing through the so-called "blue wall" now looks like a distant memory. But Biden's coalition is showing signs of discontent amid the Israel-Hamas war. On paper, Michigan Republicans should be primed to contest the state again next year.
Instead, Republicans may struggle. It's their own fault.
