Why the Michigan primary differs for Republicans, Democrats in terms of delegate allocation
The Michigan GOP, engulfed in a leadership crisis, is using a hybrid nominating process that includes a weekend convention to allocate most of its delegates.
Michigan’s presidential primary is straightforward for Democrats: 117 delegates are up for grabs Tuesday in a state President Joe Biden favored moving toward the front of the 2024 calendar.
Republicans, meanwhile, have themselves quite the puzzle.
The GOP primary results will determine how 16 of Michigan’s 55 Republican National Convention delegates will be awarded. The 39 others will be decided Saturday at a state party convention, doled out based on the preferences of delegates from each congressional district.
That state convention — or, potentially, state conventions, plural — is where the real headaches could come for Republicans. The Michigan GOP is embroiled in a bizarre and unending leadership dispute. Two different people — Kristina Karamo and former Rep. Pete Hoekstra — claim to be chairing the state party. They have scheduled dueling conventions. And while the Republican National Committee has said Karamo was properly removed from the post and has proclaimed Hoekstra the rightful chair, there isn’t 100% clarity on whose convention will count.
“If other people who believe that they may represent the Republican Party — they’re more than welcome to have a meeting wherever they want, whether they want to meet in Detroit or whether they want to meet in Manistee or Big Rapids, Michigan, they can have a meeting,” Hoekstra, who has scheduled his convention in Grand Rapids, said last week in an interview with NBC News. “But it won’t be a Republican convention or caucus.”
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