ROCKFORD, me. – When Representative Peter Meijer voted against Donald J. Trump in January, making him one of ten Republicans in the House who opposed their party, he bluntly admitted that “it may have been an act of political suicide” .
That month, during Mr Meijer’s first town hall event since that impeachment vote, some of his constituents made it clear to the newly elected Congressman that they shared his view – not that Mr Trump had committed an impeachment act by helping to contribute to a riot to trigger the impeachment of the Capitol, but that crossing was an unforgivable sin.
“I took action against people who told me not to vote for you, and I’ve lost that belief,” said Cindy Witke, who lives in Mr. Meijer’s district, that of Grand Rapids and small communities like this one in West Michigan is anchored.
Nancy Eardley, who spoke next, asked Mr. Meijer to stop saying that the election had not been stolen. She said he “betrayed” his Republican base.
“I couldn’t have been more disappointed,” said Mrs. Eardley. “I don’t think there is much you can say that will ever change my mind about not firing you in two years.”
Mr Trump’s acquittal on Saturday in his impeachment trial was the first test of his continued influence over Republicans. All but seven senators in the party voted against the condemnation. But in Michigan, one of the major battlefield states that Mr Trump lost in the November election – and which is home to two of the ten House Republicans who backed his indictment – there are growing signs that a party is not in the River is but agree to double the same issues that defined Mr. Trump’s political style: conspiracy theories, allegiance to the leader, a web of misinformation and intolerance.
The recent elections in the nationwide Republican Party resulted in the uprising of Meshawn Maddock, a Conservative activist who helped organize busloads of Michigandans traveling to Washington on January 6, the day of the Capitol Assault. Mike Shirkey, the Senate majority leader and Michigan’s best-elected Republican, was caught on a hot microphone arguing that the riot was “staged” and a “hoax,” an unmasked conspiratorial claim that is now popular with Mr. Trump’s supporters . And in a vivid reference to a divided state, the attempt by local Republicans to reprimand Mr Meijer for supporting impeachment stalled between 11-11.
In the state’s sixth district, which hugs Lake Michigan, two GOP branches have already voted to convict Representative Fred Upton, a veteran Republican who also supported the impeachment.
Victor Fitz, a Cass County prosecutor and Republican official who supported efforts to reprimand Mr Upton, said the current gap between the party’s base and its founding wing was the largest he has ever seen.
“There is deep disappointment” with Mr. Upton, said Mr. Fitz. “And to be honest with you, I think there are some who believe that with this vote he crossed the Rubicon.”
With loyalty to Mr Trump as the overarching point of contention, Republicans are grappling with the idea of the proverbial big tent, and politicians like Mr Upton and Mr Meijer are at the forefront of the conflict. In the months since election day, when the president attacked the democratic process and a mob came to the seat of the American government on his behalf, the dangers of walking in his political shadow have rarely been clearer. But it is also clear that his party shows little desire to break with him or his complaints.
The outcome of this tug-of-war will determine the direction of a party that is out of control in Congress and the White House and needs to focus on winning the 2022 midterm elections. The GOP tent has made room for conspiracy theories like obstetrics and QAnon, as well as extremist elected officials like Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Is there room for anti-Trumpers?
“The Michigan Republican Party is’ more Trumpy today than it was before the elections,” said Jeff Timmer, former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party. The former president’s electoral coalition has failed, but its supporters are so vehement in their belief that the party has made its mistakes cannot recognize or learn from it.
“That’s why Trumpism will continue long after Trump. People who weren’t there four years ago, ”he said,“ people we had never heard of are now controlling the party’s levers. “
He added, “When you make a deal with the devil, the story usually ends with the devil gathering your soul. You don’t get it back and you have a happy ending. “
Places like West Michigan are a landmark for conservatism, mirroring the Republican Party’s path from a political coalition defined by Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan to a coalition focused on Mr. Trump. Given the strong opposition to the big government and the decline in production that is leaving deep scars, this region of the state also has a libertarian bias and independence, as evidenced by former representative Justin Amash, a prominent Trump critic.
During interviews, business stops and the virtual town hall event, Mr Meijer tried to explain his impeachment decision on a similar principle. He responds with grace to his Republican critics, calmly pointing out the lack of evidence to support Mr. Trump’s allegations of electoral fraud. He opened City Hall by describing the immense fear he and other lawmakers felt during the January mob violence.
“This was a moment when we needed guidance, and I don’t think the President intended to do that,” he said of Mr Trump.
Even so, the ground is shifting under Mr. Meijer’s feet, party officials in Michigan warn, including some in his own district, the Third Congress. Angry people leave messages of “traitors” in response to his social media posts. News outlets backing Mr Trump have pinned Mr Meijer and other Republican incumbents who supported the impeachment by highlighting their key challengers. Furthermore, Mr. Trump’s vision lives on: Many in the party want to look backwards at grievances such as perceived electoral fraud rather than focus on the next election cycle and reach out to the swing voters he lost.
People like Mr Timmer have asked the party to look into the suburban Democratic bias that has plagued Republicans across the country. Ms. Maddock and others have focused on unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. Her husband, a member of the Michigan Legislature, and other state lawmakers signed a brief request to the Supreme Court to give state-elected officials the power to dismiss the election results.
Several Michigan Republican officials, including Ms. Maddock, Mr. Shirkey, and recently-elected GOP chairman Ron Weiser, did not respond to multiple requests for comments on this article. Mr Upton and Mr Meijer declined to be interviewed, and several county and local officials who voted to reprimand the elected officials did not comment.
The collective public silence of many Michigan Republican leaders signals a party that is walking on eggshells without a clear leader or unifying ideology. Mr. Weiser is a former member of the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents and a powerful Republican donor, but he needed Ms. Maddock’s early support as a conduit for the Trumpian base.
Mr Meijer is already facing a main challenger, although he is still considered a favorite. Several Republicans in Mr. Upton’s orbit have raised the possibility of him retiring rather than embarking on a potentially bloody re-election campaign.
The rise of Republicans who were in Washington on Jan. 6 or vociferously supported Mr. Trump’s allegations of electoral fraud like Ms. Maddock has messed up a state with a rich history of business-friendly Republicans in the form of former President Gerald Ford, the state’s native son .
Tony Daunt, a Republican official who acts as an election guard and has advised Republican heads of state, said he hoped the party would not use Trump loyalty as a litmus test.
“I think with the right kind of leadership, the people we need would eagerly come back to the group,” Daunt said. “There are some good things from the Trump administration and even from Trump’s political instincts that are worth bringing into the Republican camp. But Donald Trump is neither the vehicle nor the messenger for it. “
Jason Watts isn’t that confident. As an election officer in Allegan County and party secretary in the Sixth Congressional District, he has seen the party transform to the point where it is now unrecognizable, he said. He doubts the necessary guidance will come.
“I almost feel like a person without a home,” said Mr Watts. “Because you can change candidates, but until we are ready to act as a party, we will wallow in this defeat for a few cycles.”
Mr Watts also has a secret to reveal: he never voted for Mr Trump despite organizing more than 15,000 yard signs for the Republican ticket in the county. In 2016, he supported Ohio Governor John Kasich in the primaries and long-term independent candidate Evan McMullin in the general election. That year, Mr. Watts voted for the libertarian candidate – a silent expression of discomfort with the former president that he has only released since the Capitol attack.
Does he wish he had spoken earlier?
“I just felt like it would be a brief storm if I rummaged through,” said Watts. “But this undertone of hatred, this loyalty at all costs, will harm us.”
And what happens now?
“If they’re crazy, so be it,” he said. “You can vote me out in two years.”
