Exclusive: How Michigan Republicans flipped the state for Trump

A previously unreported 2023 meeting of the state's GOP congressional delegation set the stage for some of the Republican Party's biggest gains of the 2024 election. Here's how it happened...

Republicans are regaining control of Michigan. Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) is the new chair of the House GOP Conference; the state voted in favor of President Donald Trump; and Republicans flipped one of the most expensive House seats in America, all while the GOP shattered the Democrats’ state legislative trifecta, making Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D., Mich.), a potential presidential candidate in 2028, an all-but lame duck governor.

Earlier this year, however, Republican wins in Michigan were unpredictable. Debt, building disputes, and lawsuits marred the Michigan Republican Party’s apparatus as November approached. Dueling GOP chairmen in the state each lay claim to the party’s apparatus. Internal strife lessened in 2023 after a never before reported meeting of Republicans in the state’s Congressional delegation.

Following the 2022 election, Kristina Karamo, the party’s failed Secretary of State nominee, took control of the GOP. The state GOP was soon left in a complete state of disarray, with a PO Box listed as the party headquarters. Karamo was ultimately ousted, following a lengthy and bitter legal dispute, which left former ambassador and Rep. Pete Hoekstra in control of the party.

However, many doubted that Hoekstra, who President Donald Trump recently tapped to serve as his Ambassador to Canada, could get the party’s act together, let alone flip the state red. “Rebuilding a party left in that shape months before the election was more than just a daunting task, it seemed nearly impossible,” a Michigan Republican strategist told the Washington Reporter.

Despite challenges, Michigan remained a state that Republicans were able to win over by capitalizing on Democratic divides over Israel. The party’s top officials descended onto the state, and worked alongside Hoekstra and Michigan’s federal delegation of Republicans to notch a series of wins.

At a previously unreported meeting in 2023, Michigan’s U.S. House decided an early order of business would be the total endorsement of Donald Trump, strategists told the Reporter. In July 2023, the delegation issued a joint statement endorsing Trump.

Michigan’s was the first major delegation to issue a full-slate endorsement for Trump, an early sign that GOP officials would fight to keep Michigan on the map for Republicans.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich), the dean of the delegation and a man well-versed in electoral dogfights, was on the phone urging qualified veterans and successful businesspeople to take a leap and run for Senate, House, and state legislature spots, a veteran of state politics told the Reporter.

Walberg’s recruitment efforts worked; Mike Rogers, Tom Barrett, and other well-regarded candidates threw their hats in the ring. Rogers narrowly missed out on flipped a Senate seat, only losing due to third party vote sinks that siphoned votes from him, and Barrett flipped a House seat.

Joining Walberg in reshaping the state’s politics is McClain, whom allies have dubbed “MAGA McClain.” The congresswoman is the incoming House GOP’s Conference Chairwoman, giving Michigan additional firepower in Republican politics.

McClain donated over $1 million directly to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), as well as to dozens of House Republican incumbents and challengers — including races in Michigan. McClain criss-crossed Michigan with the Trump campaign, and her team traveled the state knocking doors, attending events, and making calls to voters in battleground districts like Rep. John James (R., Mich.) and Barrett. In total, she and her team visited twelve states for candidates in 21 separate districts, as the Reporter has covered.

Republicans in Michigan and around the country also benefited from efforts by Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.), who recently took over Congress’s bipartisan committee on the Chinese Communist Party. His findings forced Democrats like Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.), who successfully held her party’s Senate seat, to campaign like Republicans in the home stretch. Slotkin’s rhetoric against electric vehicle mandates sounded at times indistinguishable from that of Republicans.

Whitmer, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, will now face a GOP-controlled state House. The GOP flip of the state House in Michigan was the only flip of a legislative body in America in 2024. Efforts by Walberg and McClain in particular to help down ballot candidates proved decisive, sources on the ground told the Reporter.

Following the elections, McClain saw herself elevated to serve as one of the top House Republicans in America, Rep. Jack Berman (R. Mich.) was appointed to the Steering Committee, and Walberg and Rep. Bill Huizenga (R., Mich.) are running to chair the Education and Workforce and Financial Services Committee, respectively. Both Walberg and Huizenga have donated millions of dollars to elect House Republicans.

During his time in Congress, Walberg has donated to over 350 candidates, his team told the Reporter, while still managing to hit over 200 percent of his NRCC assessment.

Walberg and Huizenga face the Steering Committee in the coming days, which will determine whether they win their chairman races; McClain told the Reporter that she is excited at the prospect that both will join her in the ranks of powerful Michiganders in Washington, D.C.