Michigan Republican voters will see a different presidential primary process in 2024.
The leaders at the Michigan GOP decided Saturday on a plan that would use a hybrid primary caucus strategy next spring. This was brought on by the state Democrats voting to move up the primary date which would violate national Republican rules.
“They felt like they had to do something different and that’s where the chaos started,” said John Sellek, founder of Harbor Strategic.
Michigan in general will benefit from an earlier primary with more attention placed on the state and more influence in the early race.
When the Democrats moved their primary to February 27 for next year, they put the Republicans in a bind. The national party has rules, that cannot be changed, that forbid Michigan moving their primary before March 1.
“Which would have caused Michigan’s Republicans to face a penalty, and instead of the 55 delegates that we are entitled to at the RNC convention, where we select our nominee for president, we’d have just a mere 12,” said Kristina Karamo, the party’s chairwoman.
The two choices were a primary worth fewer delegates or a closed caucus with the full 55 votes. The GOP chose both.
“We saw over the weekend how this was handled and was less than transparent. Nobody outside of the very tight group in the party knew what this was going to be inside these documents or knew what was going to be voted on in this plan,” said Sellek. “The plan is really tricky looking. It gives a little bit of the vote so over here and some over there, it’s got a lot going on.”
“We explored many different options, but this was the best solution,” said Karmo. “We worked with the RNC to build his plan, so we did not build it in isolation.”
Republicans will have both a statewide primary and a closed caucus.
“Of the 55 delegate votes at the RNC convention, 16 will be bound to the presidential primary result,” said Karamo, “The other 39 will be bound based on the caucus vote.”
The idea has already been hit with criticism and will surely be challenged in court.
The closed caucus will carry the most weight and with the current construction of the state’s republican delegates, it means almost a sure win for former President Donald Trump.
“It’ll make Michigan a place where people like Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley or Tim Scott look at us and say what’s the point of going up there? I’m not going to,” said Sellek. “So I’m going to move onto the next state and it means Michigan will get far less economic and political activity.”
This all hinges on the legislature ending session early. If they ended at the end of the year as usual, there’s not enough time for the new primary to take effect.
But Karamo says they don’t have time to wait and see what the Dems in control would actually do.
“We were not going to gamble with the voice of the Republican voter and we want to make sure that it’s protected,” said Karamo. “We worked with the RNC to build this plan so if they’re unhappy, that’s something they should take to the Democrats and make sure they make their voices heard in the next election. We made the best decision, considering the situation we found ourselves in.”
