GOP 'increasingly alarmed' by 'dysfunction, debt, and disarray' in state parties: report

Republican officials are growing frustrated and worried about a series of disasters unfolding in party chapters at the state level in battlegrounds across the country.

According to The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher and Nick Corasaniti, "State Republican parties in roughly half of the most important battleground states are awash in various degrees of dysfunction, debt and disarray," and "A top lawyer for House Republicans wrote an unusually acidic letter last month to the Michigan state party, accusing party officials of 'inexplicably' squandering the $263,000 they had been given by the campaign arm of House Republicans on 'exorbitant' and unnecessary expenses that would do almost nothing to help Republicans keep hold of the House," and adding, "We are growing increasingly alarmed."

In Georgia, for example, party officials are facing a massive cash crunch as they spend $1.3 million on legal fees for the fake 2020 electors. In Arizona, the party chair was forced out after a leaked recording in which he appeared to bribe Trump loyalist Kari Lake to drop out of the Senate race.

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Meanwhile, in Michigan, the GOP is facing a succession crisis as officials replaced conspiracy theorist party chair Kristina Karamo with former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, only for Karamo to refuse to leave and lock Hoekstra out of the state party servers.

"Democratic state parties are hardly all well-oiled machines, but some Democrats see the problems for Republicans at the state level as an opportunity. President Biden has been raising money in concert with the national party and in every state, and Mr. Trump is expected to eventually do the same," noted the report. "'State parties are really important partners, especially in House races,' said Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington, the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 'Dysfunction absolutely matters.'"

As all of this is going on, the national party appears to be in transition too; party chair Ronna McDaniel, who has overseen the Republican National Committee since Trump took office in 2017, has announced her intention to step aside, and Trump is pushing new far-right loyalists to key positions in the organization, including his daughter-in-law, Lara.