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    • How Pete Hoekstra Rebuilt a Broken Republican Party
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    How Pete Hoekstra Rebuilt a Broken Republican Party

    Pabio Posted on

    Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra spoke with Detroit News Editorial Page Editor Nolan Finley about how he rebuilt a broken party in time to impact Michigan’s elections. last Tuesday. The following is a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity.

    Question: What state was the party in when you took over in April?

    Answer: Disaster from a financial point of view. I think if an accountant had looked at it, he would have said we were bankrupt. We were in default on the loan we had with Comerica Bank. We had large bills. Of a $260,000 check that was transferred to our account, they withdrew over $200,000 to pay for day-to-day operating expenses rather than for campaign activities.

    So financially we were in bad shape. I think the direction the party has taken has been even more damaging than the finances. Party leaders saw themselves as the purifiers of the Republican Party. You may remember the Mackinac Conference that we hold every other fall on Mackinac Island. They actually examined and graded those of us who attended the meeting on whether we were good conservative Republicans. That’s not the job of a Republican Party, but that’s how they viewed their role and what they saw as their responsibilities. You know, I think there was a record turnout at the Mackinac conference. We didn’t attract any of the major presidential candidates.

    Q: Was there any structure left?

    A: When we took over the party, they didn’t give us access to Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, etc. So we had to go back and recreate the entire infrastructure. There was no transition process to help the new leaders.

    Q: What was the first thing you did when you walked in the door?

    A: There were people saying, “Oh, hey, we need to take on the previous regime. You know, maybe they did things wrong. There may have been illegal activities and all that kind of stuff. And I said, “We don’t have a lot of time. These are crucial elections. Michigan will be at the forefront if we reconstitute the party. We have 3 or 4 competitive congressional elections. We want to resume power. So now we’re going to focus on one thing and that’s rebuilding the party so we can do what a party does, help elect our candidates. our sole objective, to do what we have to do to elect the candidates.” And then put together the core of people who would help make that happen. I received great support from many county chairmen.

    District presidents joined us. They were very, very supportive. So, with other party leaders, we have built a strong relationship. There were clearly people saying, “No, we don’t recognize you as president and we’re not going to help you.” And it’s kind of like, “OK, this is a decision you make. But this is where we’re going. And if at any point you want to join us, that’s no problem.” Then we appealed to the staff, to the party leadership. And then I contacted the major donors.

    Q: How did you bring them back? What was your message to them?

    A: Fortunately, a number of big donors had started other organizations because they weren’t even considering having a political party among them in 2024. Mike Rogers had set up his own get-out-the-vote initiative, a popular initiative, a phenomenal organization. So it was in place. Dick DeVos and others had created this fund called the Freedom Fund, whose sole purpose was to win back the majority in the House. I had a great relationship with the Freedom Fund, with John Engler and Rick Snyder, they stepped up. Matt Hall and Aric Nesbitt in the Legislative Assembly. So many of the major donors were already involved, but not the Michigan Republican Party. And the message to them was clear. We will put in place the framework of a Republican Party so that we can provide the absolute foundation that we will need this fall.

    Subscribers: Finley: Hoekstra achieves rapid rehabilitation of state GOP

    Q: And what was it?

    A: We needed a structure to communicate and buy political advertisements, carry out a political operation, send mailings. House and Senate candidates, when sending mailers, can receive a 30-40% discount when those mailings are made with the state party. So it’s like, “Yes, we understand. We know how this works. We’ll help you set this up.” I also made it very clear that as a State Party we would work with you. I am not going to try to recreate a state party that will compete with you. You have a grassroots organization knocking on doors, and we’re not going to compete with you to try to create a bigger grassroots organization. . We will call you, collaborate and work with you. And we will fill in some gaps. Donors are obviously somewhat skeptical about the question, “Pete, can you and your team actually do this?” And it’s kind of like, “I don’t know, but at least help us get started.” And they did.

    Very early on, the DeVos family mobilized. Other people in West Michigan stepped up, which was absolutely crucial. Because the first question I got when I went to southeast Michigan was, “Pete, are the donors from West Michigan?” Do they contribute? And when I could come back and say yes, all of a sudden they were like, “OK, we’ll contribute too.”

    Q: Have those who previously seized power returned? Where did they go?

    A: Quite a few of them have bought into the vision that we want to win. They said, “We may not agree with Pete on everything,” but over the last seven months, they’ve bought into the operation, they’ve bought into the vision. There are still people who don’t like me and who blame me for having fired their president. Even though it was a state committee that did it. But they are mad at me and they don’t like me. And they didn’t want to work with me.

    Q: Many voters voted Republican for the first time. How do you explain this?

    A: We have embraced Trump’s vision of expanding this party. We will reach out to Muslim Americans. We will reach out to the black community. We’re going to reach out to the UAW workers, we’re going to reach out to the Teamsters. And if we want to win, we need such a broad coalition. Yes, we fully bought into Trump’s vision and Trump’s vision matched our vision of how we were going to win in Michigan.

    Q: Trump won by a significant margin here. You won the state House and a seat in Congress, but you lost a very, very close Senate race. How would you rate your effort?

    A: I would give us a B. We did in seven months what a party usually takes 21 months to do. When we started, we weren’t on an equal footing. We were in the hole. So we had to dig our way out of the hole and then move forward. And we did it. And I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that Mike Rogers lost. Mike is a personal friend. He had a great team. They’ve worked so hard and done so much and it’s kind of like, man, I wish we had another five months. If we had had a full cycle, instead of seven months, Mike Rogers would be a senator today.

    Q: Do you feel like the Republican Party, both in Michigan and across the country, is finally moving from ideological purity to winning elections?

    A: My job as state party chair is to win elections. This was obviously important to Donald Trump. Winning allows you to do whatever you want in terms of government. I’m excited because come January 20, we will have a team in Washington led by President Donald Trump who will govern.

    Q: Look to the future. We have an election coming up in 2026 with every statewide office on the ballot. How is the party positioned?

    A: We will continue to focus on what we see as the skeleton of a new Republican Party. Reaching out to the Middle Eastern community, the Muslim community, improving our vote totals in Wayne County. I’m very, very optimistic about 2026 if we continue on this path. There are people who want to take us back to February 2023. But I don’t think they will succeed. I think we’re going to lock in the party chairman in the state who is going to build on what we were able to do with Donald Trump in expanding the party. We’re going to build from that and create a party that will clearly move this state in the direction of a red state.

    Q: Would you serve another term as party president?

    A: We get a lot of people calling us and saying, “Pete, we want you to stay.” And we will listen. But I haven’t made a decision on this. Let us first savor what we have accomplished.

    Q: Do you plan to serve in the Trump administration, and if so, in what capacity?

    It’s all in the hands of Team Trump. Trump called me three times. In 2016, he called me and asked me to co-chair his campaign here. And I told them, “Well, I will. But you know, that’s usually the job of the congressional delegation.” But the entire Republican delegation to Congress in 2016 said no. I said yes and we won Michigan.

    Trump then called and said, “Hey, I’d like you to be ambassador to the Netherlands.” » And I said that seemed like a really good deal. I’m going to do this.

    Then he called back in January and said, “Pete, I want you to be chairman of the state Republican Party.” »

    And I said at the beginning that didn’t seem like a very good idea. Why would I do this? And he said, “Why not?” Hey, presidents can be pretty convincing. He said, “Pete, I want you to do this.” We will support you.

    I can tell you that working with the president, working with the team that we put together in Michigan, I’m glad we did it. I had a lot of fun. This was the most brutal position I have ever been in. There were a lot of people who were absolutely hostile on a personal level.

    But I had fun. And Tuesday night, it was all worth it.

    Pabio
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