LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – MIRS News, a leader in providing Capitol news coverage in Michigan, had a booth at Saturday’s Republican Nominating Convention in Lansing and they offered a straw poll for the precinct delegates and the alternates to participate in.

All three questions in the straw poll had candidates listed on the ballot and also room for write-ins.

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The polling was conducted to take the temperature of the group of Republicans at the convention to see where their heart is and who was motivating them to get out and vote.

MIRS editor, Kyle Melinn, talked about the poll on the MIRS podcast on Monday along with MIRS publisher John Reurink, MIRS House Correspondent Danielle James and Detroit News assistant editorial page editor Kaitlyn Buss. Both James and Buss were at the convention in Lansing on Saturday.

The MIRS newsletter worked with the Michigan Republican party on the poll and the first question asked who they would like to see run for president in 2024. 509 delegates participated in the poll question. Reurink said that the emailed votes had Florida Governor Ron DeSantis besting former President Donald Trump but that the paper
ballots tipped it over for Trump.

Trump received 56.39% of the vote and DeSantis had 33.6%. The rest of the field wasn’t even close. The candidates who didn’t fare well in this part of the straw poll included former South Carolina Governor and Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley; former CIA director and Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; former VP to Trump, Mike Pence; US Michigan Rep Mike Rogers; Texas Senator Ted Cruz; and US Wyoming Rep Liz Cheney who all polled with insignificant numbers.

Buss said of the results, “Those results don’t surprise me. There’s still a lot of energy for Trump at the Republican base…Even his ties to the candidates running here in Michigan have been very important… They ended their endorsement video with a big Trump endorsed sticker. There’s a ton of energy for him…”

James saw that Trump energy at the convention as well. “I saw a few big Trump flags…I think one lady had a full length trump dress with his campaign information on there.

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And I would say of the people I talked to it seemed like at least 50% had that leaning where they were looking and interested in his endorsement and him running.”

The second question in the straw poll was how much more likely they were to vote for a candidate with a Trump endorsement. The total number of people who would be more likely to do that was 70% with 42.35% much more likely and 28.04% somewhat more likely.

Reurink said that it showed that Trump still has a lot of influence with the Michigan delegates. Buss pointed out that the candidates who ended up on the Republican ticket were all Trump endorsed and said, “We’ll see what that energy brings in November and if that’s enough to actually win.”

The last question int the poll was who the delegate hoped would seek the Michigan Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2024. 500 delegates voted in this polling question. Former Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate, Ryan Kelley won this one with 31.6% of the vote. Businessman, Army veteran and US House Congressional candidate John James received 29% of the vote and former Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Garrett Soldano got 10.8%. Others, receiving less than 10% of the vote were US Rep Lisa McClain, US Rep Bill Huizenga, US Rep John Moolenaar, and Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock.

However, the results of this poll appears to be skewed. Both Melinn and Buss reported that Kelley was steering people towards the booth to vote for him. Melinn said, “There was a concentrated effort with the Kelley folks to go over to the straw poll and vote. Early in the voting there was a very wide margin for John James but as the convention moved on, I had more and more people come over and say, ‘hey is this the straw poll. Ryan Kelley told me to come over and participate in this.’”

Regardless of who wins the Republican nomination to be the Michigan Senate candidate in 2024, they will most likely be competing against 72-year-old incumbent Democrat Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, who has announced that she will be running again.

Kelley actually seems to be running for several different offices. A recent post by him on Facebook talks about what he will do if he runs for the MI GOP Chair which includes having precinct delegates choose the Governor candidate and getting rid of electronic voting machines.