Report: Republican parties in Michigan and Minnesota seeing major financial and ideological turmoil

According to a report from Jim Geraghty of National Review published Monday, the state Republican parties in Michigan and Minnesota are going through major financial and organizational turmoil.

Geraghty wrote for the conservative publication that the two states, along with Arizona’s and Colorado’s Republican parties, are “collapsing” and “going broke and devolving into infighting little fiefdoms.” All four parties took a turn towards Donald Trump-style politics, and new leadership in many of the parties prioritize loyalty to the former president.

In Michigan, the state Republican Party is also effectively financially crippled. According to a recording obtained by The Detroit News, the state committee’s budget chairman Dan Bonamie said the party has just $93,231.90 on hand.

“What I will confirm right now is that we have $93,231.90 in our accounts,” Bonamie said in a closed-door meeting earlier this month, according to an audio recording obtained by News reporter Craig Mauger. “We have not taken loans out. We are working on the debt.”

In addition to financial troubles, consistent infighting has been reported after QAnon conspiracy theorist Kristina Karamo became the state party’s chairwoman in February. Karamo’s insistence on fringe political ideas instead of grassroots organizing is already starting to cripple the party, the Washington Post reported last month. Not only are Karamo and her extremist allies feuding over political ideas, but a physical altercation between one of her supporters and an ally of her rival Matt DePerno occurred in May.

DePerno, an election denier who is currently facing legal troubles for allegedly taking possession of a state voting tabulator without proper authorization, used to be an ally of Karamo until she defeated him to become the Michigan GOP chair in February.

“There’s big internal disputes within the party right now, and Karamo has done nothing to bring the party together,” DePerno said. “And how could she after she ran on a platform for the chair to divide the party? Her platform was to burn it down to eliminate the people who don’t agree with her.”

Michigan Democrats also achieved a state-level trifecta last November, putting even more pressure on the state’s Republicans to reorganize themselves.

According to Federal Election Commission filings, the Minnesota Republican Party had a little more that $53 of cash on hand at the end of May. The filings also show the Minnesota GOP is $335,000 in debt. Meanwhile, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party of Minnesota is using its recently secured trifecta to pass an unprecedented series of progressive legislation at the state level. Recreational marijuana, free school lunch and voting rights reform are some of the bills the DFL was able to pass in the recent session.