Trump turns Michigan into MAGA proving ground

Mick Bricker, a legislative candidate, said that everybody in this room is running to oppose the RINOs who have taken over the House and Senate.

Three candidates endorsed by Donald Trump are part of a great experiment here. Michigan has emerged as the most important proving ground for Trump because of his level of intervention up and down the ballot.

His success or failure in electing an unofficial slate will be a measure of his clout within the GOP. One of the five states that flipped to Joe Biden in 2020 is one of the key battlegrounds.

The president of the North Oakland Republican Club said after a candidate debate last week that he sees the importance of Michigan as a swing state.

More than any other state, Michigan has 10 state legislative candidates endorsed by Trump. He has endorsed candidates in two statewide offices and against two House GOP incumbents who voted for his impeachment.

Trump wrote a letter to state party delegates on behalf of a candidate for attorney general.

His commitment to remake the state's political order has not been lost on his supporters. Borrowing a page from single-issue advocacy groups, they are pressing candidates to answer a questionnaire that asks if elected officials should be replaced for ignoring.

Trump will be in the state on Saturday.

The candidate proud of protesting at the Capitol said after her speech that the grassroots is going to take back Michigan.

It will mark a severe turn away from establishment Republican politics in one of the few states where, right after the 2020 election, the traditionalist wing of the party appeared to still have life.

It was a Republican member of the Michigan state board of canvassers who voted to certify Biden's victory in the state, and it was GOP lawmakers who told Trump he had no post- election path to overturn the results. Two of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump's impeachment were from Michigan.

The state was described as a lagging leader by Trump in his election conspiracy crusade.

The old guard can see that the state of Michigan may be fication this year.

The inmates are running the asylum, according to a man who was removed from his post as a local party treasurer in Michigan after publicly breaking with Trump.

Trump's advisers have maintained that he is focused on the elections. He is going to hold a rally in Macomb County just weeks ahead of the state GOP endorsement convention.

For Trump and his allies, the former president's intervention in Michigan is part of a plan for the future.

If Trump runs again and loses, it will help him to have followers in positions of power. His preferred candidates are making baseless claims about voter fraud in Republican nominating contests, which will endanger moderate voters in the general election.

Matthew DePerno is a lawyer who was a major figure in Trump's failed attempt to overturn the election in Michigan. The candidate Trump endorsed in the race against the congressman is a former Trump administration staffer. The former president's preferred state legislative candidates might have been.

One of them is a state House contender who says he is Trump's guy in West Michigan.

The speakers warned of aMarxist takeover of your government and the corrupt political elite.

A man in the audience called out to the crowd.

Michigan, which Biden carried by nearly 3 percentage points, was not particularly close to the other swing states. In five states, Trump lost by narrower margins.

The state is significant enough that Trump's advisers are considering a second Biden match up.

One of Trump's earliest supporters in the state was state Rep. Matt Maddock, who is vying to become speaker. His wife is a co-chair of the state party. Last year, Trump wrote that Michigan needed a new legislature. The people there are too spineless to investigate election fraud.

Saul Anuzis, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said that with no high-profile Senate race in the state this year, Trump's involvement in local contests allows him to say that he's doing.

Michigan is one of the places he can showcase checking that box.

It is not clear if Trump has been good for the Republican Party in Michigan. He got more votes in his losing effort in 2020 than he did in the previous year. The governor's mansion, the offices of the attorney general and secretary of state, as well as the majority on the state Board of Education, were all lost to Republicans during his presidency.

The aftermath of Republicans losing elections in Georgia and Arizona is different for Trump than it is in Michigan.

The state party does not have a strong Republican political infrastructure to stand up to him or to compete with his influence over the grassroots, according to the former executive director. The one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind.

The base's devotion to Trump was on display at a small rally in frigid cold at the state capitol building on Saturday, where a woman held a sign demanding a vote.

The time for the establishment status quo has come and gone, according to the candidate for secretary of state.

The Michigan Republicans acquiesced to Trump more than any other time this year. The event in which DePerno referred to Trump as the greatest president in modern history drew Michigan candidates running for governor, secretary of state, and the U.S. House, according to a video posted on social media.

I'm running for governor, too, and I was held up by security when I tried to get on stage with the former president.

We don’t have a strong Republican political infrastructure here to stand up to him, or to compete with his influence over the grassroots. It’s a no-man’s land. And you know, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

For the purpose of the Republican nomination, Trump is a boon. There is a political risk to the Trumpification. According to a Detroit News/WDIV poll, Trump is less popular among independents and voters who describe themselves aslean Republican. His favorability rating in the state has gone down.

After the attorney general debate, Republicans would likely make complaints about Democratic officials handling of the coronaviruses and voter fraud, as well as other issues.

John Engler was a three-term Michigan governor. He said that Republicans could easily miss the opportunity because of the unpopular president.

The only way it won't be is if we nominate candidates who are looking back, not forward, he said.

He thinks that a lot of the candidates are going to lose.