DeBoyer officially wins LG nomination as Michigan Republicans focus on leadership change in Lansing

MT. PLEASANT – Republicans gathered for their nominating convention on Saturday with a focus on changing Michigan after eight years of Democratic leadership in Lansing and 25 years of Democratic representation for Michigan in the U.S. Senate, as delegates voted in the party’s slate of statewide candidates for lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state supreme court, state board of education and the boards for three state universities.

“For eight years, Democrats have run the governor’s office in Lansing, and look at the results,” gubernatorial nominee U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township) said. “We’re 46th in the nation. Schools are failing. Energy bills are crushing families. Young people are leaving. Eight years of broken promises. Michigan is in decline. Our house is on fire.”

State Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay), who James named as his running mate earlier in August, was officially named the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor. In his speech to the convention, he emphasized his background chairing the state House Oversight Committee and issuing subpoenas to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee for governor. 

“I will not run scared, and I will fight on a daily basis for the conservative principles that we so dearly stand for,” DeBoyer said. “And I’m going to tell you right now, conservatism is back.”

Candidates and party leadership repeatedly attacked their Democratic counterparts as socialists. U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers told the crowd, “We have a state to save,” after calling his Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed a “con man” and an ideological extremist who wants to “abolish ICE, abolish voter ID, abolish gas-powered cars.” 

While El-Sayed has campaigned openly to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, he has not said he wants to abolish voter ID, instead saying he opposes “mandatory Voter ID laws like the ‘SAVE Act’ that impose unnecessary barriers to citizens voting.” As for Rogers’ claim about gas-powered vehicles, El-Sayed has supported a transition to clean energy and electric vehicles but has denied he wants to ban gas-powered vehicles.

None of the nominations put forward by the party were challenged, so all positions were uncontested at the convention — a fact that party pundits said was helped by the choice of DeBoyer as a running mate for James. 

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Sen. Jim Runestad said of the unity within the party behind DeBoyer, “I tell you, this is very rare. There’s usually critics in some of these factions around the Republican Party. Everybody’s united. I can’t talk to a single person who doesn’t say that Jay is a great decision.”

One point of interest at the convention came from Paul Jacob, chair for Americans for Citizens Voting, the citizens-only voting measure that the Bureau of Elections recommended against putting on the November ballot due to a shortage of valid signatures. Jacob said that the group is challenging that decision — the Bureau of Elections said that their sample was 17 signatures short, but Jacob said the group had collected 23 affidavits affirming their valid signatures on the ballot petition.

The group has filed a response that “shows three times that many voters are on that petition who they disqualified, but they are qualified registered voters in Michigan,” and the decision on whether the measure will make the ballot will go to the Bureau of State Canvassers on Monday. 

Runestad said that there were around 1,900 attendees at the convention at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mt. Pleasant, many waving signs reading “Take Back Michigan.”

Anthony Forlini and Doug Lloyd were officially nominated for secretary of state and attorney General, respectively, after both winning the party’s endorsement at its March convention. 

Lloyd, asked by reporters after the event how he would handle his relationship with President Donald Trump — who sitting Attorney General Dana Nessel has repeatedly targeted with legal action since he took office for his second term — said that he felt it was the state attorney general’s responsibility to focus on the people of Michigan. 

“If there are positive things the attorney general can work with the federal government on, we will. But if the federal government is intruding on the citizens of Michigan, we’re going to fight it back. It’s just that simple,” he said, a departure from some Republican candidates who have said in debates that they could not identify where they might break with Trump’s policies. 

In response to questions about fundraising — given that Democratic nominees in those roles have outraised them significantly — Forlini questioned where that funding for Democrats is coming from, saying, “We’ve been working pretty hard, and we’ve had fundraisers, and our money is coming between the borders of Michigan on the east and west coast of Michigan, not the East and West coasts of this country.”

The party also nominated candidates for its other statewide positions on Saturday. To the Michigan Supreme Court, the GOP nominated Judges Michael Warren and Casandra Morse-Bills, and for the State Board of Education, Bree Moeggenberg and Terence Collins were nominated by the party. 

For state university boards, Julie Maday and state Sen. Roger Victory were nominated to run for the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, Lena Epstein and Michael Schostak for the University of Michigan Board of Regents, and Christa Murphy and Andy Anuzis for the Wayne State University Board of Governors. 

Party leaders also emphasized unity within the state Republican Party throughout the event, with Maday noting in a speech, “The Democrat coalition in the state is splintered; ours is not.”  

Runestad similarly said in an opening speech to the convention, “Our message is simple: there is a place for all of the voters in the Michigan Republican Party, and we’re going to build that party starting now for people who work hard, for parents who want better schools, for entrepreneurs who want to build, for farmers, manufacturers, veterans, police officers, firefighters, working families — all have a place in the Michigan Republican Party.”

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) also asked delegates to “give us a little bit of help up there in Lansing” by electing Republicans to the offices of governor, attorney general and secretary of state.  

“What we’ve done is we’ve unified the Republican Party. We unified the House Republicans, and we’ve done it by saying, look, we’re going to do the things we said we were going to do when we campaigned,” Hall said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining control of the House and taking the Senate for Republicans in November. 

DeBoyer also spoke to reporters about the platform for Republicans, should they win a trifecta in the state government. 

“It’s actually just a pretty simple common sense platform, which is we are going to make education at the top of the nation again in the state of Michigan, we are going to make law enforcement and public safety a primary thing,” he said. “We are also going to efficiently look at government, and we are going to right-size government.”