Latest news with #Runestad
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MIGOP chair appears open to primaries for attorney general, secretary of state
MIGOP Chairman state Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, center, and state Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, right, discuss the future of the Michigan Republican Party Chad Livengood of The Detroit News during the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) MACKINAC ISLAND – Michigan GOP Chair Jim Runestad says he is open to the idea of selecting nominees for attorney general and secretary of state through statewide primaries. Currently, the candidates are selected by delegates at each party's convention. 'I think the base of the party likes the idea of being able to have input in these statewide positions,' said Runestad, a state senator from White Lake. State Rep. Bryan Posthumus (R-Rockford) expressed a similar sentiment but added that he sees value in the type of grassroots activists conventions bring out. Runestad and Posthumus spoke during a discussion on the future of the Michigan Republican Party at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday. Runestad was selected to lead the Michigan Republican Party in February. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX He said the party had about $800,000 of debt when he first took over, but said he has raised $500,000 since taking over. 'We're vanquishing that debt,' Runestad said. 'I think by year's end, we're going to get most of that down, and into next year, at the end of this term, we certainly will have no debt.' Runestad said he has vowed to ensure the party has a 'big' fund balance by the end of his term – even if means denying requests for a last-minute spending spree in the run-up to the election. 'We're going to raise the money, we're going to spend the money, but whether it's me or someone else, we're not going to leave that for the next person,' Runestad said. He said the party has been undergoing a rebuilding process following several years of dramatic internal politics. 'We are on a growth spurt,' Runestad said. 'We have changed everything that was done in the past in terms of the email system, the domain system, the website. We are changing absolutely everything from what it was before into a completely new party.'
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sen. Jim Runestad elected to lead Michigan Republican Party heading into key election year
State Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake), April 20, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins Republicans from throughout the state gathered at Huntington Place in Detroit over the weekend to select the state party's new leadership heading into the 2026 election cycle. At Saturday's biennial convention, which Michigan Advance was denied credentials to attend, the party's delegates ultimately elected state Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) as chair after two rounds of voting, winning 63% of the vote according to Detroit News reporter Craig Mauger. In his campaign for chair, Runestad touted his record as a top fundraiser and one of the state's most conservative legislators. During a GOP forum held in Berrien County last month, Runestad also noted his effort as an Oakland County commissioner to combat undocumented immigration by implementing the federal E-Verify program used to determine if employees are eligible to work in the United States. He faced off against former party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, a longtime Trump loyalist who received the president's endorsement on Thursday. She is currently facing charges as part of the 2020 fake electors scheme intended to falsely deliver Michigan's electoral votes to Trump, despite his loss to former President Joe Biden. Joe Cella, who served as Trump's ambassador to Fiji during his first term, also sought the party's top position. In addition to his work with the Trump administration, Cella served as the Catholic liaison for Trump's 2016 campaign, as well as a member of his transition team. While Republican consultant Scott Greenlee initially campaigned for the position, he later dropped his bid and endorsed Maddock. None of the three chair candidates received more than 50% of the votes during the first round of voting, according to results posted by Dan Wholihan, who was elected to chair Michigan's 7th Congressional District Republican Committee in 2023. Runestad and Maddock advanced to the second round of voting while Cella, who received the smallest percentage of the vote at 23.47%, was eliminated. Maddock, who received 37% of the vote in the second round, later conceded, calling for a motion to cast a unanimous vote for Runestad. With Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson facing term limits in 2026, Republicans are gearing up to try and claim each executive seat. However Benson has already announced her candidacy to be the Democrat's next nominee for Governor in 2026, with Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson also throwing his hat into the ring. On the Republican side, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) has announced his bid for governor, as is Anthony Hudson, a truck driver from Genesee County. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a lifelong Democrat, is running as an independent. Alongside the state's three executive seats, the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate will be back on the ballot. Republicans currently hold a six-member majority in the House, while Democrats hold a one-member majority following the departure of U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) who resigned from the state Senate at the end of last year after winning election to Congress. With U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.) announcing he will not run for reelection, Republicans have the opportunity to claim another seat in the U.S. Senate, with the nonpartisan University of Virginia Center for Politics already rating the race a toss up. Freshman Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) is also expected to face a tight race in Michigan's 7th Congressional district, which the Cook Political report also rated as a toss up. Michigan Democrats held their own convention down the street at the Renaissance Center on Saturday, where former state Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing) was elected as chair, after longtime community organizer Al 'BJ' Wilson dropped out of the running. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
CBS News
22-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Michigan Republicans and Democrats each select new party chair
Michigan Republicans and Democrats have each elected a new chair who will lead their respective parties into the 2026 midterms, when several key races will be decided including a critical U.S. Senate seat. Both parties held conventions in Detroit on Saturday. Republicans running with Runestad Michigan Republicans elected State Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, as their new party chair, according to the Associated Press. Runestad whipped more delegates after two rounds of voting to secure the position, despite ongoing criticism that he will be working two jobs between his elected office and the party chairmanship. He said he will not be stepping down from the Legislature and dismissed the concerns, saying because Republicans are in the minority in the Senate, it will not take much of his time. The 2025 convention at Huntington Place ran more accordingly than in 2024 when former GOP chairperson Kristina Karamo was escorted out of the event. "I believe this is a good look of the good fortune and the blessings that we will have moving forward, and how the party has learned from our past and we're going to move forward with unity and win," said Bree Moeggengerg, state committee woman for District 2. Curtis Hertel selected by Democrats Michigan Democrats during their spring convention at the Detroit Marriott picked former state lawmaker Curtis Hertel as their party chair. "Working people deserve better, and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves to ensure Democrats can deliver at every level of the ballot in Michigan," Hertel said in a written statement Saturday. Hertel unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House in the 2024 election, losing to former state lawmaker and Army veteran Tom Barrett by nearly 4 percentage points. Michigan is set to be a key state to watch in the 2026 midterms, when Democrats will try to end Republicans' control of the U.S. House and Senate in hopes of blunting Trump's agenda. In late January, Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said he won't seek reelection in 2026. Democrat Elissa Slotkin narrowly defeated Republican Mike Rogers for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2024.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Michigan GOP rejects Trump's choice, elects Sen. Jim Runestad as state party chair
Michigan Republicans applauded President Donald Trump's contentious spending cuts and federal layoffs at a Detroit convention Saturday but rejected his choice for state party chair. State Sen. Jim Runestad of White Lake Township defeated Trump's endorsed candidate, Meshawn Maddock of Milford, on the second ballot at Huntington Place, taking close to 63% of the votes cast by about 1,900 delegates. "We are going to turn the grassroots into a machine, along with the state party, to defeat the Democrats," Maddock told the convention after making a motion to make his victory unanimous. Runestad is recognized as one of Michigan's most conservative state lawmakers, serving in the Senate since 2019 after serving in the state House from 2015 through 2018. He earlier headed a financial services company. "I have never surrendered our conservative values to special interest temptations," Runestad said in a Saturday video message to delegates, ahead of the voting. Runestad was elected to a two-year term. He told reporters after the vote he plans to keep his seat in the Senate, which runs through the end of 2026, and expects to have no trouble fulfilling both roles. Trump endorses Meshawn Maddock for Michigan Republican Party chair Trump memo on civil rights, DEI executive order undermine 60 years of progress | Opinion Despite Trump's strong hold on the party, particularly at the level of activists who attend conventions, Saturday marked the third convention in two years at which delegates have rejected a Trump endorsement. In 2023, delegates chose Kristina Karamo for chair over Kalamazoo attorney Matt DePerno, at a state convention in Lansing. And at a 2024 state convention in Flint, GOP delegates chose state Rep. Andrew Fink of Adams Township as a Michigan Supreme Court nominee over Trump's choice, Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra. At Saturday's convention, delegate Josh Powell wore a "MAGA" baseball hat and a Runestad shirt. "I think Trump probably made the endorsement (of Maddock) on about 30 seconds worth of information," said Powell. "I respect his endorsement, but the internal politics is different." Powell, who was an unsuccessful GOP candidate in Michigan's 25th House District in 2024, said he has a high opinion of Maddock but believes Runestad will be a more successful fundraiser and will be more effective in communicating with the news media than she would have been. The convention was mostly upbeat. Michigan Republicans are buoyed by the January return of President Donald Trump to the White House and their recaptured control of the state House in the Nov. 5 election. Now, attention is focused on 2026, when the Michigan governor, attorney general and secretary of state positions will be up for election, along with both chambers of the state Legislature and an open U.S. Senate seat. Republicans have not elected a U.S. senator in Michigan since 1994. Though pushback is underway, even in Republican areas, on some of the federal government layoffs and spending cuts orchestrated by Trump and his billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, Michigan Republicans showed no signs Saturday of wanting Trump, who has few critics among party activists, to pump the brakes. "Every morning, many of us wake up and say, 'What executive order is he going to sign today?'" outgoing party Chair Pete Hoekstra said to enthusiastic applause at the convention. Hoekstra is awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation as Trump's choice to serve as ambassador to Canada. Several delegates voiced support for the layoffs and spending cuts in interviews with the Free Press Saturday. Two years ago, Michigan Republicans elected Kristina Karamo, the unsuccessful 2022 candidate for secretary of state as party chair. But her term came to an acrimonious end in January 2024, amid dismal fundraising and other controversies. The party's state committee voted to replace Karamo, who has never conceded her double-digit 2022 election loss to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, with Hoekstra, a former west Michigan congressman and U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. Some in the party feared that electing Maddock, a controversial figure who faces state criminal charges of falsely claiming to be a 2020 Michigan presidential elector, would spell more discord. Delegates who nominated one of the other chair candidates, third-place finisher Joe Cella, gave speeches with thinly veiled criticisms of Maddock, who served as state party co-chair in 2022, when Democrats swept to their first trifecta in four decades, winning back both the state House and Senate while returning Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for a second four-year term. That year, Maddock was also criticized for endorsing Republican candidates Matt DePerno for attorney general and Karamo for secretary of state ahead of the convention, when top state party officials normally remain neutral. Jeannie Burchfield of Calhoun County, who nominated Cella, said "this is not the time" to elect leaders "who have failed in the past." Cella, a party activist and former Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to Fiji who endorsed Runestad after the first ballot, is ethical and "will not put his finger on the scales," when party nominations are being decided, said 5th Congressional District delegate Hank Choate, who like Maddock is criminally charged in the "false elector" case brought by Attorney General Dana Nessel. Defendants are awaiting a judge's ruling on whether they will be bound over for trial after preliminary hearings. In a video message shown to delegates ahead of the voting, Maddock said one of the lessons learned in the last decade is that "Donald Trump is always right," as the video displayed an image of Trump's social media endorsement of her. Meghan Reckling, a party activist and former Livingston County chair, talked about the growth she has seen in Maddock as a leader in the 10 years she has known her and described Maddock as "disciplined, strategic, and unwavering," while "fearless." Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Republicans reject Trump's choice for state party chair
