Ousted Michigan Republican Party chair Kristina Karamo has lost yet another bid in court to be reinstated to her job.
According to the Associated Press, "The Michigan Court of Appeals said it won’t suspend a lower court’s order affirming Kristina Karamo’s removal by party members. Karamo was hoping that a stay would clear the way for her to lead a meeting Saturday in Detroit to select presidential delegates for the party’s national convention."
Karamo, a far-right QAnon proponent and election denier who has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories and has called reproductive health care "Satanic," was elected to chair the state GOP after an unsuccessful run for Secretary of State in 2022.
But her tenure was immediately marked by catastrophic financial losses to the party and infighting that even led to officers getting into a physical brawl with police response.
Ultimately, Republicans were fed up and voted to oust her from leadership, replacing her with former congressman and Trump administration diplomat Pete Hoekstra.
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However, Karamo caused a succession crisis by refusing to leave her position, blocking Hoekstra out of party servers and other resources he needed access to for weeks.
Earlier this week, a state judge came down on the side of party officials who replaced her, ruling that Hoekstra is the legitimate chair of the Michigan GOP and clearing the way for him to assume the role of managing the party delegation.
The ousted Trump-supporting state party chair could create problems for the former president — and for Michigan Republicans.
“We have all these opportunities in the state, we’ve got Trump with a significant lead in early polling, we’ve got an open Senate seat, we’ve got three competitive congressional races. We’ve got control of the statehouse up for grabs,” Michigan-based Republican strategist Jason Cabel Roe recently told The Hill. “And most people, unfortunately, are spending their time and bandwidth talking about all the nonsense going on at the state party.”
