Only a handful of the 72 Michigan Republican state lawmakers have publicly endorsed Donald Trump’s bid for another term as president.
Lansing — When Donald Trump arrives in Michigan on Sunday to campaign for a return to the White House, the former president likely won’t have the same entourage of elected Republican leaders who were closely aligned with him in the past.
Only a handful of the 72 Republicans who serve in the Michigan Legislature had publicly endorsed Trump’s bid for another term as president by Thursday, a trend that highlights concerns among some GOP leaders in a state that once helped propel him to the White House.
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While 25 Michigan Republican lawmakers had backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, only three legislators confirmed they were supporting Trump, according to a Detroit News analysis of interviews and announcements that covered the positions of 61 of the 72 GOP legislators. One lawmaker backed former Trump United National ambassador Nikki Haley.
Thirty-one of the officeholders said they either weren’t ready to make an endorsement or didn’t plan to deliver one at any point before Michigan’s Feb. 27 presidential primary election. Attempts to reach the other 12 GOP lawmakers in recent days were unsuccessful.
Many Republicans — some of whom championed Trump as a candidate in the past — said they were either focusing on trying to win back control of the Michigan House in 2024 or didn’t want to get involved in the divisive and crowded Republican presidential contest. Among the other candidates are former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
“It’s a hot-button issue in my district,” said Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord. “I supported Trump the first time around. But I am going to stay out of it. Whoever the Republican candidate is who comes out of it, I’ll be there for them 100%.”
Trump is scheduled to make his first campaign stop in Michigan Sunday night since launching his third bid for the presidency. He is set to speak at the Oakland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner inside Novi’s Suburban Collection Showplace.
Unlike his 2020 reelection bid, Trump’s third campaign for the presidency is drawing much less enthusiasm among Republican state lawmakers, who are in the minority in both houses of the Legislature for the first time in 40 years.
Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, said he was supporting DeSantis in part because the Florida governor is younger and more careful with his words than Trump. The party needs to stop focusing on the 2020 presidential election, Roth said, referencing false and unproven claims of voter fraud that the former president and some of his supporters have made about his defeat to President Joe Biden.
“(If) we keep talking about 2020, we lose,” Roth said. “It’s that simple. We have to go forward and look at the future.”
Trump lost Michigan’s election in 2020 by 154,000 votes to Biden, who is seeking reelection in 2024. Despite investigations and audits upholding the result, Trump has maintained murky assertions that wrongdoing swayed the race.
Rochester Hills Republican state Rep. Mark Tisdel said he is endorsing Haley for president, arguing her work as South Carolina’s governor and her track record as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations showed a certain pragmatism and ability to work with a wide variety of people that could translate into attracting independent and moderate voters from both parties.
Tisdel was proud of some of Trump’s accomplishments as president, but he said people are “sick and tired of the acrimony.”
“We need simple, down-to-earth approaches to real problems,” said Tisdel, whose 55th House District represents a nearly 50-50 split of Democrats and Republicans.
