TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – God and money were issues that were prevalent at the Michigan Republican Party Chair Candidate Forum and Candidate Meet & Greet in Traverse City on Sunday night at the Great Wolf Lodge conference center. The election for MIGOP Chair will be at the Republican convention that runs on February 17th and 18th in Lansing. The candidate who wins will have a 2-year term which means they will be at the top of the party during the 2024 presidential election and the election to pick a new senator to replace Democrat Debbie Stabenow.

The meet and greet was presented by We The County Grand Traverse, Antrim GOP, Benzie GOP, Charlevoix County Republicans, Grand Traverse GOP, Leelanau GOP and the Republican Women of Leelanau County. These were the groups asking questions at the event.

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Eight of the 11 Republicans running for the Chair position showed up in Northern Lower Michigan to stand in front of precinct delegates and other Republicans to plead their case as to why they should be the next MIGOP Chair to move the party forward after a disastrous 2022 election season that netted Democrats in control of the state.

The candidates at the forum included Scott Aughney, an election investigator; former GOP Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno; Michigan Chair of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign Lena Epstein; Kent County GOP activist Michael Farage; software engineer and computer security expert JD Glaser; political consultant Scott Greenlee; former GOP Secretary of State candidate Kristina Karamo and Tuscola County GOP Chair Billy Putman.

All the candidates were asked the very important question about how they intended to fund the party. There was disagreement all night about how important money was going to be in order for the party to move ahead and where to get the money from.

Some, like DePerno and Epstein, said that fundraising was the main job of the Chair, but Aughney disagreed. He said, “You will never win again with money. You will not win again until you get rid of this election process. It’s corrupt and it’s fixed. We have selections, we don’t have elections.” He said that his #1 priority as Chair would be to get rid of the process. He doesn’t believe that the MIGOP should have a lot of money because it opens the door to the “pay to play” game. He said the Chair should help the counties learn how to raise their own money, make good decisions on where to spend money, and work with candidates on raising money.

Greenlee said that money was needed to get the GOP candidates on TV or they weren’t going to win. He said his two goals were to “raise money and then use that money to beat Democrats.”

Karamo talked about diversifying the funding. She said that in 2021, 98% of funding came from ten unique donors and in 2022, 96% funding from 25 unique donors. She said it wasn’t a healthy party model where a “handful of people hold on to the purse strings” and those purse strings usually had strings attached. She also said the Chair needed to work with the small business community and said that 500K small businesses across the state are Republican.

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Putman said that over the last ten years, the MIGOP has spent over $100 million dollars. He asked, “What do we have to show for it today?” He said that the MIGOP has to be run like a business, even during the off-years like 2023 with cash-flowing in order to sell the widget which is a “better way of life in Michigan – Christ, family, country.”

DePerno said “We had better learn how to raise $50 million (like Whitmer) if we want to compete” or we will no longer be a political party. He said the money needed can’t be raised through low dollar donations and that leadership is needed at the top of the party to “go out and build relationships with people who have money.”

Farage admitted that he wasn’t great at fundraising but he said he had someone who could help him. He proclaimed that election integrity was needed in addition to money to win the state and that you don’t always need the most money, you just need to know how to spend it.

Glaser said that right now, nobody wants to give money to the party whether it’s $20 or $5K. He proposed that delegates “buy” the party by raising about $300 each to pay for the operating costs of the party and that he supported having a finance committee to vote on how the money would be spent.

The topic of God was also a big issue that was brought up all night by the candidates. Their faith was put in the form of a question when they were asked to describe their “spiritual walk.” They all said that faith and God was a big part of their personal and professional lives and a part of their decision-making process.

Karamo told everyone that she had started out in theology school before getting into politics and that the problems we are having now are a rejection of God. She said that “my generation has totally walked away from God” and explained that the number one focus of her life is Jesus Christ and sharing the gospel with others.

Putman gave an emotional response to the question and said his spiritual walk and his family led him to run to be MIGOP Chair. He thanked his family, many of whom were in the audience supporting him, and credited them for why he was able to run for Chair. He said about them, “We are very conscious to make sure that every conversation we have, we’re pulling people towards Christ…That’s why I’m on the stage today.” He said he wants to put that back in the MIGOP platform to make the organization “blessable again.”

Greenlee declared that his mom instilled in him that “Faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life” and that he starts his day off with a Bible verse and uses his faith as much as possible as a compass and guide in the actions that he takes.

Most of the candidates talked about God and Jesus Christ throughout the evening as they answered other questions. They were also questioned about how they were going to hold elected officials responsible for their promises to voters, how they intended to united the different factions in the party, if they agreed with charging precinct delegates a convention registration fee and what “America First” and patriotism meant to them.

Epstein told the crowd, “When I think about ‘America First’ I definitely think about President Trump. He was a great president. I got involved early in his campaign because Donald Trump was speaking in a way to me that I hadn’t heard or hadn’t heard in a long time. And he was appealing to me as a hard-working mom. And he reminded me that we were the greatest country in the world, that we had the best platform in the world and it was time to get back to work. ‘America First’ means the values espoused by our Founding Fathers.” She said that everyone in the room was “America First” no matter who they supported in the Republican primary.

After the Q&A session, the candidates stuck around to talk with the audience members to answer more questions. Michigan News Source was able to talk to all of the candidates except for Epstein who couldn’t be located. The question asked of them was how they intended to take advantage of Proposition 2 in order to increase Republican voters and Republican victories.

Karamo answered, “It’s going to be with the Absentee Ballot Chase Program, making sure we reach out to voters as they receive their absentee ballot because typically it’s only a handful of people who actually provide that service.” She also pointed to monitoring administrative policy that the Secretary of State brings down in response to that as well as keeping an eye on who is funding the elections and watching the chain of custody during the nine days of early voting. Ensuring that elections are secure is a priority for her and she said it’s not a partisan issue to have secure elections. She added that with the passage of Proposition 2, it opens the door to a violation of our voting rights and as Chair she wants to make sure that the voting rights of Michigan voters are being protected we well as making sure we’re taking full use of any new provisions that exist.

Greenlee said, “I think that Prop 2 changes the dynamics of everything. It’s all about data. It’s about getting that data out to the local level because all politics is really local at the end of the day. And giving our local leaders the tools they need to engage voters and motivate them to vote. And that motivation comes in a number of ways. It comes with TV commercials very broadly, radio, billboards, digital media, through mail, text messages…it comes in many different ways and I’m familiar with most, if not all of those ways, and I’ll have a good communications team staying on top of anything new that is cutting edge that we can leverage.”

Farage explained, “Proposition 2 is the law of the land, the voters have spoken. Regardless of whatever the laws are, we have to learn the law, every stipulation. We have to do a better job than our opposition at not only getting people to utilize the system but working in a way that makes it to an advantage. A lot of Republicans oppose Proposal 2 and a lot of them did not know Proposal 2 from A-Z. We need to learn Proposal 2, we need to educate everybody on Proposal 2. We simply need to do a better job at it. On a level playing field, Republicans can beat Democrats every time.”

DePerno replied, “We’re going to meet the Democrats on the playing field that they created…I am going to do everything in Proposal 2 better than the Democrats. I am going to have the Democrats in two years screaming to reverse Proposal 2 because I am going to do it so much better than them. I am going to win elections across the state.”

Putman answered the question by saying, “Sandy Kiesel and I, she’s a part of the Election Integrity Force right now. She’s part of the recall. The reason she’s doing the recall is to find out where all the votes are going and how they’re being tracked. So we’re going to create a database of qualified voter rolls that are going to help our poll watchers and poll challengers be more efficient at the polls. And be able to track who’s voting in what districts and if they are getting extra votes.”

Glaser said, “I haven’t thought about that question at all” and went on to say, “Our biggest problem is that not enough Republicans are engaged. There are too many people in Michigan who aren’t involved and have allowed the party to shrink. That’s the source of the problem.”

Aughney responded, “I’m not. Because #1 there may be a pending lawsuit coming down the road. It’s a corrupt system. I will not use Proposition 2. If you want to get fair and honest elections as much as possible, get rid of the absentee system, get rid of the voter registration system and you register for each election…You want to do the absentees the way we used to do it 30 days before the election.”

Update…Michigan News Source caught up with Lena Epstein after the event to pose the same question. Her response was, “My goal is to raise money as state party chair so we have victory. The role for the state party chair is to raise the funds to compete against the Democrats. The Democrats have us whipped the last two cycles when it comes to ballot initiatives. The conversation that we need to start having is how do we get back to a format in the sate of Michigan where conservatives are as successful if not more at ballot initiatives. And so one of the reasons I’m running is of course because of the fact that Prop 2 passed but I’m also running because Prop 1 passed and Prop 3 passed…so I’m standing forward on a commitment to properly fund our party so when it is time to go and put our next initiative on the ballot that we have the funding to be successful against the Democrats.”