Infighting within the party has caused division, which some Republicans worry might harm Donald Trump’s campaign in the crucial battleground state as he prepares for the general election in November. On Saturday, the candidate handily won the Republican caucuses in Michigan.
According to Edison Research, the former US president also prevailed in Saturday’s Republican caucuses in Missouri and Idaho.
Trump defeated his final opponent for the Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley, in each of the three states, putting him one step closer to leading his party into the White House and facing Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the general election.
Trump Wins in Michigan
The state Republican Party of Michigan reports that Trump defeated Haley in each of the 13 districts that participated in the nomination caucuses.
With 1,575 votes to just 36 for Haley, Trump received over 98% of the total ballots cast in his favor.
The head of the Michigan Republican Party, Pete Hoekstra, described the outcome as a “overwhelming, dominating victory.”
At the presidential caucus in Grand Rapids, western Michigan, more than 1,600 party insiders cast their votes to choose delegates for either Trump or former U.N. Ambassador Haley for the party’s national nominating convention in July.
There is not much longer for Haley to change the direction of the Republican primary. The largest primary day, Super Tuesday on March 5, when votes from 15 states and one territory will be cast, is coming up.
Trump leads the contest by a wide margin after winning in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, South Carolina, and now Michigan, Missouri, and Idaho. Haley is only able to stay in the race because of the backing of donors who are eager to see someone other than the outgoing president.
Michigan Republicans created a hybrid nomination structure for this election cycle that combines a primary and a caucus.
With a resounding victory on Tuesday, Trump grabbed 12 of the 16 delegates that were up for grabs. On Saturday, he put all 39 of Michigan’s delegates up for grabs.
Knowing that Trump would win handily, the participants in one of the 13 caucuses chose to save time by asking everyone who supported Haley to stand up. Only twenty-five-year-old Carter Houtman stood up in a room full of 185 voting delegates.
In an interview following, Houtman told Reuters, “It was a little lonely.”
Houtman stated that if Trump is the candidate, he will probably vote for him in the general election in November, but he thought it was crucial to defend his convictions on Saturday.
“I didn’t like the way that Trump handled himself after the last election,” Houtman stated.
Supporter Dennis Milosch, 87, said that the former president’s resounding victory on Saturday demonstrated how the party has changed from being allied with big business to being centered on the working class.
“Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he pays attention to, responds to, the average person,” said Milosch.
Michigan Party Rift
There had been a chance for miscommunication during Saturday’s competition in Michigan. Supporters of Michigan’s previous Republican Party chair, Kristina Karamo, are up against a section of party members who decided to remove her on January 6 and install Hoekstra as chair, after months of internal upheaval inside the party.
In her role as chair, Hoekstra, whom Trump supported, was in charge of the Grand Rapids conference. Saturday’s dueling convention in Detroit, which Karamo was scheduled to chair, was called off after an appeals court turned down her motion to postpone the order this week, after a Michigan court’s confirmation of her removal.
In protest, caucus sessions for at least two districts’ pro-Karamo party chairs were held away from Grand Rapids. The Republican National Committee, which formally acknowledged Hoekstra as state party chair last month, is unlikely to accept the results of those.
Trump’s administration, Hoekstra served as the US ambassador to the Netherlands. Speaking to Reuters outside the caucuses, he expressed confidence that the Michigan Republican Party would come together in support of regaining control of the state House of Representatives, capturing the White House, and a U.S. Senate seat that was up for grabs.
