Did Michigan Republicans Learn A Lesson From 2022? Party Observers Suggest They Have

Michigan Advance

March 30, 2026

Normal, sensible and electable: those are the words being used to describe the Michigan Republican Party after it endorsed Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini and Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd at Saturday’s spring convention.

By all accounts, that’s exactly what the party’s delegates and its leadership team were aiming for with all three executive branch seats, the U.S. Senate and control of the state Legislature on the line in 2026.

The party’s choice of candidates wasn’t the only harbinger of a resurgent Michigan Republican Party on Saturday. There is still an open question if the party has bounced back from its dire financial position after a few years of dysfunction under previous Party Chair Kristina Karamo. However, those who attended the late March endorsement convention said the show ran smoothly and without the kind of drama that tends to percolate when delegates get into the same room.

Voting for its endorsements only took a few hours and its candidates were decided after only one ballot — another remarkable change as the past few state party conventions involved second ballot swings in deep extra innings.

For Dennis Lennox, a longtime Republican public relations consultant, all of that bodes well for the fight ahead.

“I was there — on the floor, in the aisles, in the hallways. All day,” Lennox wrote on social media. “For the first time since 2019, Michigan Republicans looked normal. The party still has 99 problems, but Doug Lloyd and Anthony Forlini aren’t two of them.”

Others who spoke to Michigan Advance on the convection floor said that groundwork was being laid to make the party seem more even-keeled and less fringe ahead of those important contests. The party having its act together this time around also helps, said Republican political consultant and former party director Jason Cabel Roe.

“I think this is the best state convention we’ve had in many, many years, probably since Trump came down the escalator in 2015. These are two really, really good, strong candidates, and what’s most impressive is how decisively they won on the first ballot,” Roe told Michigan Advance. “You got two candidates that actually had resumes that match up with the job that they’re seeking, who I think will be attractive to donors and have no baggage. So I feel really good about the team that we put together.”

Roe agreed that one-year party conventions are a balancing act between the activist class, which holds much sway, and the establishment running the event, but said it was apparent that some lessons had been learned and internalized.

“This is what we were all asking ourselves. I’m a delegate at this convention, but I also work professionally in politics. The fear was that the activists were so committed to being right, rather than winning,” Roe said. “That we would put forward candidates that were deeply flawed. Today we decided to put forward the best candidates, the most qualified candidates.”

GOP delegates at the Michigan Republican Party Nomination Convention in Novi. March 28, 2026 | Photo by Ben Solis/Michigan Advance

The most recent history of the party losing in a perceived red state, which is more accurately described as purple with deep pockets of red, helped raise that alarm bell, Roe added. This year offers Republican voters something to be motivated about because Forlini and Lloyd can unite the party.

Will the money pour in with the fringes trimmed?

When MIGOP Chairman and state Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) took over the party in 2025, he did so with an aim to turn it around, fix its money issues and the perception that its conventions were the wild west of state politics. He acknowledged on Saturday that past conventions were “crash and burn” and a large reason why was that the powers that be would let their differences boil to the surface on the floor.

Runestad told reporters after the convention that he spent a solid two weeks ahead of the event getting delegates’ and party folks’ disagreements in check to avoid a 10-hour meeting full of floor fights.

The party’s chair also said the hyperfocus on winning the November election helped cool the hotter heads among delegates, some who may have wanted a candidate to strip the party down to its studs rather than fix it from the inside.

Electability and strong policy are important, but Forlini and Lloyd’s success will come down to how much money they’ll be able to raise to bring their messages statewide. Runestad said he believes that Republicans will be able to match the funding might of their opponents this year.

“What I’ve been hearing from donors across the spectrum is that if the right candidates are elected, they will step up,” Runestad said. “I think we’re going to have a good donor base, based on these two candidates.”

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad speaks to the Michigan Republican Party Nomination Convention in Novi. March 28, 2026 | Photo by Ben Solis/Michigan Advance

Roe said the state party’s biggest role is to serve as a bank for the national party committees. Having competent leadership and great candidates means a lot of money from those national committees will flow through the state party. That will not only fund the party’s operational costs, but also funding field staff that the party relies on.

The normalcy of the day’s events and its slate of candidates both will help immensely on that front.

“What Jim helped these activists understand was that we’re not referees in this. We’re technocrats that want to build out an operation so that our candidates can be successful,” Roe said. “That helped lower the temperature of the fight between the grassroots and the donor class or the establishment. … The White House and the national committees have faith in him, but now we’ve also demonstrated that we have quality candidates worth investing in.”

What could go wrong? A bruising midterm and gubernatorial primary

To say the party has completely recovered was a tough call, but Roe said the party appears to have acknowledged that it can’t win in a purple state with bad candidates.

That’s not to say that the MIGOP in 2026 isn’t the party of Trump, with its focus still set on mandating voter ID requirements, sweeping tax cuts and support for a larger U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence here in Michigan. Most of that agenda is still unpopular with a wide swath of independent and Democratic voters. But in choosing Forlini and Lloyd, pundits like Roe and Lennox say their chances of swaying the electorate have increased.

One must look no further to the Republican’s crowded gubernatorial primary for the real turbulence on the horizon. Roe said for the pairing of Forlini and Lloyd to be successful, the party’s voters at the ballot box need to pick a strong candidate at the top of the ticket.

Several of its candidates in that race were at the confab in Novi this weekend, whipping votes on the floor and with campaign materials and merchandise at the ready in a vendor section located in the back of the expansive convention hall. That included U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township, Senate Majority Leader Aric Nesbitt of Porter Township, former Attorney General Mike Cox, former House Speaker Tom Leonard, former Pastor Ralph Rebandt and its latest addition, businessman Perry Johnson.

Nesbitt, Cox and Leonard were seen working the floor but Rebandt, Johnson and James were the ones to address delegates from the rostrum.

Johnson’s appeal and strength with the electorate still needs to be tested after an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2022 and a presidential run in 2024. Now Johnson is back, with his personal fortune to pull from and the public relations prowess of his enigmatic advisor, John Yob.

Gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson speaks to the Michigan Republican Party Nomination Convention in Novi. March 28, 2026 | Photo by Ben Solis/Michigan Advance

While some recent polling is showing Johnson closing in on the wide lead previously established by James, there are still questions on whether the hype around Johnson is organic, and if James ever really had the type of lead to begin with. But at the convention this weekend, Johnson commanded a strong presence, even if he still has some ground to make up.

James also spoke and had an entourage of supporters working the floor and at a vendor area. He stopped to take photos with various delegates and supporters, spoke to the press — Johnson did not hold a scrum — and appeared at the rostrum.

That said, James has been slowly losing ground as the race moves forward. James has not attended one of the several debates that others took part in. Cox and Nesbitt, in particular, have gone after James’ lack of presence in the race. The events James has held were in mostly in small rooms with select groups of the state’s Republicans, adding to questions on whether he was in it to win it.

Johnson has recently been at the forefront of those assaults on James’ candidacy, choosing to attack James for his recent vote to keep government-accessible “kill switch” technology in motor vehicles, which was a part of former President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. His vote has been a sore point with Michigan Republicans.

James’ team has since quarreled with the assertion that he did not receive a warm welcome at the Saturday convention, but many observers in Novi this weekend heard a mix of boos and cheers as he took the stage. Several of his key applause lines were also met with tepid claps.

Among those who have had the most success in recent Republican politics is Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township). His view of the gubernatorial dynamic was more rosy than that of those who see its divisions as deep and potentially insurmountable.

“They like what we’re doing in the state House. If we’re unified, we can defeat the Democrats very easily. I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing here,” Hall told reporters. “You see them embracing John James. You see them embracing Perry Johnson. You see a Republican Party here motivated to win, looking beyond a lot of those distractions.”

The Michigan Advance, a hard-hitting, nonprofit news site, covers politics and policy across the state of Michigan through in-depth stories, blog posts, and social media updates, as well as top-notch progressive commentary. The Advance is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.