Former Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo campaigns in Lansing on Aug. 27, 2022. | Allison R. Donahue
After a ruling in February from a Kent County judge found that Kristina Karamo had been properly ousted from her role as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, the Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld an order barring Karamo from acting as the party’s chairperson.
Ever since she was expelled from the position as chair at a special meeting on Jan. 6, 2024, Karamo has argued her ouster was invalid, filing a motion with the Court of Appeals in June to overturn her removal.
However in its decision Friday, the Court affirmed the Michigan Republican State Committee’s special meeting was valid, and members had properly removed Karamo, writing in its opinion “Karamo has not identified any errors in the trial court’s application of the law to the undisputed facts.”
Karamo challenged the procedures taken to call the Jan. 6 special meeting alongside the attendance of proxy members in establishing a quorum for the meeting. However, the trial court which initially decided the case found that because Karamo had not called a special meeting after a third of the state committee’s members had requested one, those members could call it themselves under the party’s bylaws. The Court of Appeals opinion later states, “There was also no evidence that the members who appeared in person at the meeting on January 6, 2024, mishandled the proxies,” with the party’s bylaws allowing a quorum to be established through members present or proxy.
“The undisputed evidence showed that 71 members of the 107 total regular members appeared at the meeting held on January 6, 2024, which plainly constituted a quorum…Of those members who appeared, 45 appeared in person and were allowed to vote on the motion to remove Karamo as chairperson of the State Committee. The members held the vote, and 40 of those 45 voted to remove Karamo, which was more than the required 75% of the in-person and voting members. Consequently, given the undisputed evidence, the members who appeared at the special meeting held on January 6, 2024, validly removed Karamo as chairperson of the State Committee as a matter of law,” the Court of Appeals wrote in its opinion.
Following Karamo’s removal, the party selected Pete Hoekstra, a former U.S. representative and ambassador to the Netherlands, as the party’s new chair. However, with President-elect Donald Trump set to nominate Hoekstra as U.S. ambassador to Canada, the party will likely need to find a new chair in the coming year.