At the Mackinac Policy Conference, the Empire strikes back in seersucker suits

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, home of the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 28, 2024 | Susan J. Demas photo illustration

The annual Detroit Regional Chamber’s confab, held hours away from Lansing on idyllic Mackinac Island, is a swanky playground for business execs, lobbyists, lawmakers, media and assorted hangers-on.

This year’s Mackinac Policy Conference was busier than I’ve ever seen it (so much so that we’ll have stories about energy policy, labor rights, the housing crisis and more going well into this week). And maybe it’s just the glow of coming back post-pandemic and post-surgery alongside our awesome Michigan Advance team, but even an introverted workaholic like me had fun. (And yes, part of that was getting to pet Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s social media secret weapon, her dogs, Kevin and Doug).

But beyond the usual porch-side schmoozing and boozy receptions for the seersucker-suit crowd, there was a definite vibe shift from the last couple conferences with tensions over the looming 2024 election and a palpable desire to see Republicans reclaim some power in Michigan, as well as in the White House. So it was somewhat fitting that the blockbuster guilty verdict in Trump’s hush money trial was announced just minutes after the last panel wrapped, a chilly conversation between bipartisan legislative leaders (but more on that later).

The 2022 conference took place in that weird, disquieted space between when the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion on the Dobbs case leaked and the actual decision overturning the national right to abortion was issued.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the Mackinac Policy Conference May 29, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols

During her keynote address, Whitmer, who was thought to be facing a tough reelection during what was expected to be a red wave year, decided not to play it safe in a room full of CEOs expecting to hear vague economic development plans and platitudes about working across the aisle.

The Democrat took that moment to make her case for abortion rights.

“As we chase our collective success, we must also be a state where women have bodily autonomy and equal rights,” Whitmer declared — and the audience unexpectedly dissolved into cheers.

As it turned out, she was ahead of the curve (and most of her party) in betting that reproductive rights would be a defining issue in the midterms and she went on to trounce her GOP opponent by double-digits. Her victory also helped boost Democrats to flip both the Michigan House and Senate in November 2022 — something most conference-goers seemed to think was nearly impossible just months earlier.

Democrats wasted no time with a legislative blitz that included banning LGBTQ+ discrimination, formally repealing the state’s 1931 abortion ban, tightening gun laws and, most cruelly for chamber types, dumping Right to Work.

There was visible whiplash for conservatives grappling with the first unified Michigan Democratic government in about 40 years. That was reflected in the 2023 edition of the Mackinac conference where civility and bipartisanship are always extolled as the highest virtues (while panelists typically dole out savvy advice on how Democrats can fold gracefully).

But suddenly, business groups were no longer at the top of the lobbying food chain and Republican cooperation could be an afterthought on most bills. To top things off, national pundits were still hopeful President Biden would bow out in 2024, setting up a Hunger Games-style primary with Whitmer as one of the leading contenders.

Even the corporate speakers couldn’t be counted on to pile on liberal excess, with billionaire Mark Cuban going on a memorable tear against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who, at the time, was the the 2024 darling of rich Republican donors — proclaiming that his feud with Walt Disney was “bulls–t that makes not a damn bit of difference” and inviting critics to “call me woke.”

After Cuban dropped the f-bomb, moderator KC Crain, CEO of the eponymous business publication chain, jokingly reminded him, “I did tell you we’re at a policy conference.”

“And I told you I don’t care. I don’t want or need anything from any of you,” Cuban replied, which earned some laughs.

It was almost a Bizarro Mackinac.

The tone of this year’s conference was established early on, with business leaders making the case that it was time to put the adults back in charge (i.e. them). They also painted a picture of economic uncertainty and high inflation — despite the Dow Jones just breaking 40,000 for the first time, the national unemployment rate at historic lows and major retailers and restaurant chains slashing prices.

Another (small) data point would seem to be the droves of people willing to fork over $5,000 apiece for a three-day conference, which typically doesn’t happen when times are tough.

Sprinkled throughout the panels were conservatives taking shots at Democrats (not necessarily by name, because civility) for killing Right to Work, even though there’s no real evidence that this Gov. Rick Snyder-era policy did much to improve the state’s economy.

Last year also saw the most work stoppages since 2000. Needless to say, formidable union victories against the Detroit Three, Detroit casinos, Kaiser Permanente, UPS and Hollywood studios were barely a blip at the event (despite that, stay tuned, the Advance has some big labor stories dropping).

Members of the UAW picket line in Delta Township, Michigan on September 29, 2023. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark used her Mackinac platform to launch into a muscular defense of capitalism, insisting that American free enterprise is “under threat” (which is true if you spend all your time in lefty social media spaces, but pretty much nowhere else). She did paraphrase Bono praising the free market, whose name may ring a bell with posters who share a Spotify account with their parents.

Clark lamented that business groups often play too nice against populist “extremists” and vowed that when “government starts doing things that they don’t have the authority to do when they want to be experts on everything like running your business, the U.S. Chamber will step in to stop them.” But with the chamber’s clout with the GOP taking a hit — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) once sniped that it was a “front service for woke corporations” — it’s not clear how much power the group really can exert in politics anymore.

Another blast from the past came in the form of former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who waxed poetic about the Trump tax cuts for the rich while rejecting the new isolationist streak in GOP foreign policy.

And, knowing his audience, Ryan, cast himself as a champion of pragmatism, saying, “I actually don’t think either of our two parties are really capturing what could be a big, working majority in this country that is there for the getting but isn’t going to be gotten right now.”

Of course, Ryan — who doesn’t look like he’s aged at all since he was first elected speaker a decade ago — never sported a moderate track record, but that doesn’t really matter at Mackinac, where style can be enough to triumph over substance.

Former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. and former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at the 2024 Mackinac Policy Conference | Kyle Davidson

Given the rapt audience response (and my unscientific eavesdropping around the hotel and on the ferry), I’d bet most conference attendees would vote Paul Ryan for president in a heartbeat. The problem for them is that the country club caucus can’t win Republican primaries anymore.

The conference closed out with a discussion featuring the four legislative leaders, which is usually a convivial affair — but this one was decidedly icy.

Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) grumbled that Democrats were essentially ruining the state with policies like reinstating prevailing wage, giving the state power over permitting for large-scale solar, wind and battery storage projects and of course, axing Right to Work.

Nesbitt wouldn’t even promise that his caucus would provide the necessary votes so that next year’s budget would go into effect on time — which would seem to cut against the economic certainty that business execs spent the entire conference insisting was necessary.

Both he and House Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) confidently predicted that Republicans would take back the House in November with Trump on the ballot (even though he lost Michigan in 2020). This also came before the ex-president was found guilty of all 34 felonies in his New York trial (not that you’d expect that would change the GOP sales pitch).

I’d guess Republicans being able to provide some check on Whitmer’s power for her last two years in office would also poll spectacularly well at the conference. But of course, Michigan Republicans aren’t even pretending they’ll bring back predictable, Paul Ryan-style conservatism. Leaders are campaigning in lock step with Trump, appearing at his anti-immigration press conference in Grand Rapids, and even embarking on an excellent adventure down to the southern border.

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) at the Mackinac Policy Conference, May 30, 2024 | Anna Liz Nichols

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), who clearly had heard the laundry list of Republican complaints many, many times before, gave a clear, if slightly weary response.

“You can be about the culture of grievance. You can try to relitigate everything that’s happened in the last decade, and you can focus on the negative, or you can come to the table, and you can work together, and you can try to find answers that work for the people that we represent,” she said.

That’s what the Mackinac Conference is supposed to be about. But for many regulars, it’s been a rough adjustment to the reality that Democrats aren’t junior partners anymore. At the end of the day, that’s still the desired outcome for many powerbrokers — but that likely comes with the volatility and constitution-shredding of another Trump presidency.

Be careful what you wish for.

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