- Michigan Republicans lost big last week as voters gave Democrats control over all leavers of power in Lansing
- As the dust settles, some are looking for a leadership change, arguing the Michigan GOP chair Jim Runestad needs to go
- Runestad says that national headwinds were simply insurmountable but that the party missed opportunities on messaging
LANSING — Michigan Republicans are pointing fingers after a historic drubbing in the midterm elections, sparking calls to oust party leadership and a debate over how closely to align with President Donald Trump in the final two years of his term.
“I thought it was going to be bad,” Dennis Lennox, a GOP consultant, told Bridge Michigan. “I didn’t think it would be this bad … It’s the worst performance for the Republican Party in Michigan since the party was founded in 1854.”
Democrats who dominated the midterms are poised to take full control of both state government and Congress, though Trump has promised to use his veto pen aggressively at the federal level.
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Michigan GOP Chairman Jim Runestad defended the local operation, saying the state “actually performed better for the Republicans than the nation.” He suggested that national trends were to blame, though admitted missteps in Michigan on populist issues like data centers and government transparency.
“It comes down to it being an off-year, coupled with the price of gas, inflation and the war,” Runestad said, calling it a “missed opportunity” for Republican candidates who should have focused more on affordability and transparency issues.
But some are pointing the finger back at Runestad.
Chris Long, the grassroots vice chair of the Michigan GOP, has blasted Runestad in a series of online videos, calling him a “clown” with “no allies” and saying he hopes the party can “find a new chair with new ideas” who has “a real plan to win in 2028.”
Long is teasing a run of his own. Republican operatives have floated other names too, including House Speaker Matt Hall, consultant Scott Greenlee and Oakland County Republican Party Chair Vance Patrick — though none have officially confirmed they will challenge Runestad for the post.
But Long isn’t alone in his criticism of the state party.
Republicans lost “because we had zero inspiration or any leadership with our old and broke MIGOP party Chairman,” former co-chair Meshawn Maddock wrote on social media after the election.
She blamed “weak leaders and loser consultants still running 2012 style campaigns,” arguing that the party backed Republicans “in name only” who “never fully backed Trump … got crushed, once again.”
Blame game
Outside of party leadership concerns, some at both the state and federal level say Republicans lost because of Trump, who had historically low approval ratings heading into the midterm election.
“The problem is that we are being drowned by what is happening in Washington and coming out of the White House,” Republican strategist Jason Roe told Bridge, adding that Trump did not give conservatives “a message to run on” let alone “a reason for voters to trust us.”
Roe worked as a strategist on US Rep. Tom Barrett’s failed reelection campaign in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, where progressive Democrat Will Lawrence won with 51% of the vote.
It wasn’t a matter of fundraising for Barrett — whose race was one of the most expensive congressional contests ever — or the kinds of candidates the GOP recruited for other posts, Roe argued.
Instead, he said the issue lay with the president “talking about everything except the issues that voters were talking about.”
“If an activist or some leader within the party looks at these results and think it is anything other than what’s happening in Washington, then they are delusional,” Roe added.
In his final pitch to Michigan voters, Trump urged them to imagine he was running in the midterm too, and once Republicans lost, he suggested it was because he wasn’t on the ballot.
But Trump isn’t to blame, argued Patrick, the Oakland County GOP chair, who has criticized Runestad’s leadership of the state party.
The Michigan GOP failed to properly get the word out on statewide contests like the state Supreme Court, which left county parties to try and fill the void, Vance told Bridge.
Republicans fielded “great candidates” this cycle, he added, arguing Trump had delivered on many promises voters could have gotten behind, including securing the nation’s southern border.
Republicans need “to do a better job listening to the voters” and their concerns, as well as meeting younger voters where they’re at, but it was
the media who “made sure everybody was always fixated on gas prices,” Vance argued.
“It’s not necessarily Trump’s fault,” said Patrick, who’s led the Oakland County GOP since 2023. “Trump doesn’t dictate the price of gas.”
Trump did join Israel in starting the Iran War, however. Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz, choking off a key conduit for Middle East oil. The US subsequently set a record for the most days with gas above $4 a gallon in a calendar year.
Messaging misstep?
Runestad, the Michigan GOP chair, acknowledged the party failed to meet the moment on certain issues, pointing to fervor surrounding data centers as an area where “the ball was dropped, frankly.”
Citing traditional wisdom that the party in power at the federal level usually performs poorly during a midterm election, Runestad said he was “not shocked” as results rolled in showing Republicans lost ground across the state — even in areas where Trump had won in 2024.
While there was an anti-Trump factor, the losses are also “punishment for us being weak, limp and flaccid” on issues voters cared about like data centers and public corruption, according to Republican state Rep. Jim DeSana, R-Carleton.
DeSana was one of a handful of southeast Michigan Republicans to survive a close election, winning another term by about 1,100 votes.
“The hyper-partisan strategy of saying Republicans are good and Democrats are bad is not going to succeed going forward,” DeSana said in a statement, arguing the GOP has to “promote a positive vision for America and speak to the people about their ideas of limited government,” constitutional conservatism and “our staunch defense of liberty.”
Bitely, who worked for Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette before joining Duggan’s independent campaign, said the GOP needs to take “fresh ideas” into the 2028 presidential election, along with compelling candidates capable of driving young voter turnout.
Nationally, 66% of people ages 18-29 voted for a Democratic candidate for the US House, compared to 31% for Republicans, according to an analysis of exit polls from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.
In Michigan, turnout in college towns appeared to help Democrats flip three GOP seats, ousting Barrett in the mid-Michigan 7th Congressional District and Rep. Bill Huizenga in the southwest Michigan-based 4th, while picking up the 10th Congressional District seat held by failed gubernatorial nominee John James.
“The Democrats got super lucky with Abdul El-Sayed,” Bitely said, referencing the state’s next US senator. “I know that he didn’t get as many votes as (gubernatorial winner) Jocelyn Benson, but he brought new people to the party. … Young men who were Trump voters voted for Abdul El-Sayed.”
How will the party come back from such a loss?
Runestad said he’s “100% convinced the Democrats will overplay their hand” while they are in power and drive voters back to the GOP. “I don’t believe it’s even capable for them not to do that. … I think that the voters will have buyer’s remorse about these people being in office.”
Looking for leadership
While Trump and other Republicans had a solid 2024 in Michigan, the state party has struggled to maintain steady leadership, which experts say has limited its ability to grow a bench of candidates who could win big races.
It’s been an issue since the end of Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration, according to Lennox, who said “the institutional Republican Party has become weaker.”
If Michigan Republicans vote out Runestad at their next statewide convention in early 2027, the state party would get its fifth chairperson in seven years.
“Any chairman of any political party, or any leader of any political caucus, who fails to either win or fails to maintain (a) majority owes it — at least as an ethical principle — to offer up their resignation,” Lennox said. “Whether their resignation is accepted is a different question.”
Runestad isn’t considering resignation. Instead, he told Bridge he is “leaning very strongly towards” running for another term as chair.
He had to get “an entire operation set up” after taking over a state party with significant debts and virtually no staff, Runestad argued.
Greenlee and Vance, who both previously ran for state party chair, aren’t ruling out running again. Hall did not respond to requests for comment.
A “number of people” have reached out to Greenlee and encouraged him to run, he told Bridge,“but I haven’t made any decision yet.” Vance said he’s focused on the next county convention, “then we’ll see what’s going on after that.”
Runstead, though, said he’s not sweating potential challengers.
“The more the merrier,” he told Bridge.
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