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Michigan GOP Elects Trumpist Conspiracy Theorist Kristina Karamo Party Chair

Kristina Karamo, Michigan GOP chair and 2022 candidate for Secretary of State (Image from pre-election CBS Detroit interview.)

Kristina Karamo, the Republican Party’s 2022 nominee for Michigan Secretary of State, was trounced in that election by 14 percentage points, but that didn’t stop GOP activists from selecting her as chair of the state party(link is external) at a Feb. 18 convention.

Although Karamo defeated the Trump-backed candidate Matt DePerno, who lost his election for state attorney general last year and is currently being investigated(link is external) for his role in accessing voting machines in 2020, Trump congratulated her (link is external)as “a powerful and fearless Election Denier” and a sign of “the Party’s takeover by Trump loyalists.”

After Karamo’s selection as state party chair, she appeared(link is external) on Steve Bannon’s War Room show where she called Michigan “ground zero for the globalist takeover of the United States of America” and denounced President Joe Biden as a “traitor” and “illegitimate president” who “needs to be impeached.”

Karamo made a name for herself among MAGA activists by pushing Trump’s false stolen-election claims(link is external) after the 2020 election. In an August 2022 roundup of far-right candidates in that month’s primaries, Right Wing Watch summarized Karamo this way: "Beyond her stolen-election conspiracy theories, Karamo has also baselessly claimed that anti-fascist activists are to blame for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said(link is external) that evolution should not be taught in schools, and said(link is external) that the LGBTQ movement is part of 'Satan’s war against humans.'”

Karamo’s secretary of state bid was supported(link is external) by Transformation Michigan, which is associated(link is external) with the dominionist Oak Initiative and New Apostolic Reformation. On Sunday, the pro-Trump prayer warriors at Intercessors for America shared(link is external) a Gateway Pundit column(link is external) celebrating Karamo’s election as state GOP chair and calling her a “conservative rock star.”

Trump-supporting pastor Shane Vaughn(link is external) also congratulated Karamo on his livestream(link is external) Tuesday night, saying that God had raised her up after “they took the election from her.” Vaughn has called for statewide versions of the electoral college(link is external) to give rural Republican voters the power to block the election of Democratic candidates statewide even if those candidates get the most votes.

Before the 2022 election, Karamo filed a lawsuit unsuccessfully(link is external) trying to get tens of thousands of mail-in ballots in Detroit disqualified and demanding changes in election administration. Her lawsuit cited Dinesh D’Souza’s propaganda film “2000 Mules,” whose claims about election fraud have been widely debunked.  After the 2022 secretary of state election in which she lost by more than 615,000 votes, Karamo refused to concede and made multiple unsubstantiated claims(link is external) of voter fraud. Her bid for party chair was endorsed(link is external) by another defeated Trumpist secretary of state candidate, Arizona's Mark Finchem.

In a blunt assessment(link is external) of the impact of Karamo’s election on the future prospects for the Michigan Republican Party, The Bulwark’s senior editor Jim Swift noted Tuesday that Michigan voters have rejected the state GOP’s swing “toward extreme MAGA.” Democrats flipped both chambers of the state legislature last year while decisively reelecting Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which Swift sees as evidence that the selection of Karamo as party chair is doubling down on a losing strategy.