The state’s Democrats began holding a special spring endorsement convention in election years, which hadn’t previously been required by statute or party rules, in 2018. It gave the endorsement winners for top offices like Secretary of State, Attorney General, and the Supreme Court a head start in fund-raising and building name ID long before the Fall state convention required by law that is held in late August or September, a mere two months before the general election. The Democrats capitalized on this innovation by sweeping all these top offices and the eight state education board seats in both 2018 and 2022 (the one in 2020 was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic). The Democrats now possess their largest majority (6-1) on the state’s highest bench since before the Civil War, and they dominate all of the ed panels with lopsided majorities.
Republicans didn’t see the wisdom of holding an endorsement convention until 2022, when many argue it produced a disaster for the party. It brought about factional slugfests, procedural disputes, and bruised egos. The candidates who emerged from that endorsement convention, with its electorate of just 2,000 voters, damaged the party’s downballot nominees, all of whom emerged from the August primary election with its much larger and more representative electorate.
Critics of an endorsement convention argue that the top of the GOP ticket — the 2026 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate nominees — who are chosen by winning an August primary election in which all registered voters statewide are eligible to vote — are the public face of the GOP and carry the party’s standard into the general election against Democrats. These critics contend that it is only logical for the top nominees to have a say in who stands beside them on the ticket, but the only nominee they can be sure of would be the Lieutenant Governor, who is not included in either party’s roster of spring endorsement choices. That choice is left to the gubernatorial nominee.
Ideally, the right team can complement the nominees’ message, appeal to swing voters, and balance out the ticket. But critics claim the wrong team — like 2022 SoS nominee Kristina Karamo and A.G. nominee Matt DePerno — can bring about an electoral debacle, as happened in 2022 when Democrats won everything, including the state Senate after 40 years of GOP majorities.
Question 1): So, should the Michigan GOP hold anther spring endorsement convention in 2026? Supporters of the idea point out that 2022 wasn’t a fair test of whether such a gathering can work. No matter who Republicans nominated, they were swimming against the tide in facing incumbent Democrats Gretchen Whitmer, Jocelyn Benson, and Dana Nessel in what turned out to be a bad year for Republicans in Michigan. Besides, the GOP didn’t lose control of the state Senate because of an endorsement convention but because they were done in by reapportionment of Senate boundaries by the new Independent Redistricting Commission, which drew up maps favorable to Democrats. So, will the Michigan GOP take a second bite at the apple next spring?
Answer 1): Yes, apparently they will. Last month, the Michigan Republican Party’s state governing committee approved holding a spring endorsement convention on March 28, 2026, probably in the Novi Suburban Collection Showplace. That’s where the state GOP will anoint its nominees for important statewide offices such as Secretary of State, Attorney General, the Supreme Court, as well as the eight state education board seats (two apiece on the U-M Board of Regents, MSU Board of Trustees, Wayne State Board of Governors, and the State Board of Education) who will be on the general election ballot. Not Lt. Gov., though — that choice will be left for the gubernatorial nominee to pick after he wins next year’s August primary.
Only the endorsed candidates would then be eligible for automatic nomination at the legally required Fall state convention after the August primary, although one or more of these endorsees could be challenged, defeated, and replaced by another candidate by a 2/3 majority of the delegates.
Because the cash-strapped party lacks the funds to organize both an endorsement convention and the legally required post-primary “official” nominating convention, to offset costs the GOP will charge delegates and candidates a fee to participate. For delegates the fee will be $50 a head, which critics argue is equivalent to a poll tax. For SoS and A.G. candidates, the fee would be $10,000, for the Supreme Court $7,500, and for the ed boards, $2,500 apiece. There is some precedent. Even Michigan GOP Chairman Jim Runestad had to pony up $15,000 to enter the fray for party chief at another convention early this year. He won in a big upset.
Also, only precinct delegates elected in 2024 will be considered eligible at the endorsement conclave. That means the precinct delegates elected for the first time some four months later in the August primary will be cut out of the endorsement process They will be enfranchised for the first time only at the Fall state convention. Moreover, cynics point out that, with virtually no campaign finance laws for intra-party beauty contests, there is a probability that candidates will pay the fee imposed on delegates in exchange for their votes. But Runestad and party leaders scoff at those suspicions. They argue that precinct delegates elected in August (and sent to the Fall state convention by subsequent district conventions) are always at least 70% the same people in 2026 as in 2024. Moreover, any effort by candidates for top offices and/or their consultants to reimburse delegates for their “poll tax” in exchange for their votes wouldn’t pass the smell test with conventioneers and would backfire badly. It won’t happen, party leaders say.
Is there a real possibility that the gubernatorial candidate who wins the primary won’t honor the results of the spring endorsement convention? After all, he knows the post-primary Fall convention can as a matter of law and practice do whatever it wants, notwithstanding a prior convention’s action. Yes, a non-endorsed candidate preferred by the top of the ticket might challenge the endorsement results, but he’ll still have to get a 2/3 vote to overturn them.
In other words, the gubernatorial (or U.S. Senate) nominee would have to have a Trump-like hold on the convention delegates to bend them to his will. Is the Michigan Republican Party likely to boast such primary-nominated candidates next year?
We’ll have to wait nearly 10 months to find out.
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Several points:
(A) “He won in an upset” (Runestad’s convention victory as GOP state chairman) – this is absolutely false; Jim Runestad entered the February of 2024 convention as the favorite among delegates – he had the largest pre-convention event in Detroit and the backing of many state legislators – Meshawn Maddock at this juncture only had a reasonable shot at the chairmanship because Trump had given her a belated endorsement just before the convention began – and Matt DePerno’s endorsement by Trump in 2022 gave him a second place finish in the GOP state convention that year for state party chair. Meshawn was seen as “damaged goods” due to her controversies regarding January 6th and the “fake elector” fiasco and most convention delegates felt that election fraud was no longer an issue that the MIGOP should continue to focus upon;
(B) a MIGOP state committeeman told me the impetus to charge statewide candidates a fee did NOT come the party being cash-strapped – it began in an earlier election cycle to keep candidates out that would not otherwise be filing to run – in other words, only those big money elitists could run for offices that did not even have a salary – such as the university boards – to me this was bad party policy;
(C) the Michigan Senate was lost in 2022 due to the fact that GOP nominees to the Michigan Legislature had little or no support in the general election – in my own 58th House District Democrat Nate Shannon beat Republican Party nominee Michelle Smith in a general election in 2022 despite the fact Smith received 49% of the vote – in 2024 GOP nominee Ron Robinson beat Shannon and took the district by almost SEVEN PERCENTAGE POINTS – Robinson received plentiful campaign contributions and MIGOP support in a race which flipped the seat to red;
(D) precinct delegates often change from one election cycle to the next – they retire, are voted out or simply choose not to run again – and many precinct delegates who are elected do not even receive appointments as state convention delegates or are sent as alternate state convention delegates – who may or may not be elevated to a voting status at the state convention – also probably up to half of the precinct delegates actually named as state convention delegates actually appear for various reasons – try asking someone living in Metro Detroit to drive up to Grand Rapids on a Saturday morning, as I have as a party convention volunteer;
(E) 2022 was a low point in MIGOP’s history with the infighting regarding Kristina Karamo and legal battles – the Michigan Democratic Party had some similar problems in 2024 that contributed to their own election cycle woes.
Good points – all of ’em!
I was at the 2024 GOP convention in Flint where people were being escorted off the convention floor.
Ms. Karamo was led out by Flint police at one point.
Whew Bill, I’m not sure just what you are saying here. Let me write it out the best I can conjure and let everyone tell me I’m full of it . . . or not.
Wrt Q#1: So, it appears on the surface that the MIGOP is trying to grow the same spots as the Dems so that they have some semblance of a chance of having their candidates known come the fall vote. We all need to know the MIGOP candidates earlier in the election cycle whether they are elected with the same modus as the Dems, or not. And whether the MIGOP can back them with real $$, or not.
And after the seeming thorough trouncing the never-Trumpers got in the past few elections (but nobody seems to want to acknowledge), they appear to be settling for candidates that can wave a Trump flag while burning the MAGA flag at the same time. How to do this?
1) Nominate only never-Trumpers (when they can sneak them in) or nominate well-funded candidates that don’t require backing by a moribund MIGOP central.
2) Tar and feather and ride out of town on a rail any MAGA-Trumper that can’t pay their own way. Ignore those who can.
If this is the only way to get the MIGOP off their backsides in time to nominate candidates in time for the electorate to form any kind of opinion about them . . . well, OK . . . but it stinks.
Nice and informative article, Bill. The GOP is trying to copy the Dems plans, which have worked for the Dems. All of this hinges on the GOP’s donor class ponies up the money. It strikes me that if they were, the GOP would not necessarily have to charge the fees they are charging for attendees and potential candidates. And if they are ponying up the money, this will be an exercise in futility that will leave some members of the GOP a wee bit lighter in the pocket. Regardless, it will provide some nice fodder for TBR.
Many precinct delegates in 2022 could not afford the fees to attend the convention so some GOP activists collected monies to enable these delegates to attend.
I think both parties are coming to realize that earlier nominations are a practical necessity for campaigning these days.
We county clerks (and other Michigan election officials) have advocated for years that the primary be moved from August to earlier in the year, ideally early May.
(Given that ballots for November are required to be available by 45 days before the November general election, AND we are now required to accept ballots that arrive days after the primary, AND inevitably there are recounts, AND the state constitution now requires audits after every statewide election, including primaries… there’s just not enough time to do everything that’s legally required. An earlier primary would relieve this time crunch,)
Two elections per year (May and November) is all we need. When there’s an emergency (e.g., a legislative vacancy), the Governor has authority to call a special election.
I think both parties are coming to see the wisdom of an earlier primary. And they could move the state party nominating conventions to late May. That would remove the need for an “endorsement convention” and allow the current year’s precinct delegates a voice in the process.
Here’s an even more radical idea: let’s quit chasing Iowa and New Hampshire, and hold the presidential primary in May as well!
And since the presidential primary requires choice-of-ballot (each voter publicly selects a
Democrat or Republican primary ballot), that system could be extended to all partisan primaries.
That would eliminate the disfranchisement of tens of thousands of Michigan voters who accidentally vote for someone in the wrong primary.
So you are still the Washtenaw County Clerk after all these years? I remember when you knocked off incumbent Republican Peggy Haines in general election.
A problem with May primaries is that it is hard to collect nominating petition signatures in the winter as the cold weather prevents circulators from being outside in public places.
Excellent column. Yes there will be a GOP Nominating Comvention for AG and SOS. This Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, Campaign Finance Reports will be public for Gubernatorial candidates. I am really looking forward to your analysis of these Reports and the trend of support. Need a Poll RE: Gubernatorial candidates?
John James, Aric Nesbitt, and Mike Cox have each collected over $2 million so far.
Interestingly enough, I have been an elected (R) Precinct Delegate since 2018 and never been contacted to go to any convention. I am basically ignored but have the title LOL
Your county Republican Party should send you a “Call to Convention” where you would appear and the county convention would – via committee – choose from the attending precinct delegates, which would be named as state convention delegates OR alternate state convention delegates and given credentials to appear at the GOP Michigan State Convention. You would receive a “Call to Convention” instructing you where and when to go for the state convention.
Please call the MIGOP HQ if you are not receiving any call to convention notices.
Thanks. My county does not seem to have any organized (R) party.
The Michigan Democratic Party in 2018 tremendously helped the trio of Whitmer, Benson and Nessel get elected.
To me it is ridiculous for any statewide party candidate to have to begin their post-nomination campaign in August before the general election.
The best thing in 2026 Michigan Dems – as in 2018 – have going for them is a non-presidential cycle in which they are the non-holders of the U.S. presidency.
The bad thing against them is that Democrats have controlled statewide offices since 2018 and the electoral history of Michigan dictates that it is time for a party change – as it did with Jim Blanchard in 1990, Jennifer Granholm in 2010 and Rich Snyder in 2018.
In 1998, the GOP pulled a break when Dems nominated progressive liberal Geoffrey Fieger who was soundly beaten by two-term Governor Engler. Fieger had no hope of winning significant amounts of outstate voters.