Team,

I wanted to send you a quick note on the recent Michigan Republican Party Convention, and what it can tell us about the current state of the GOP.

To recap: the convention was held to officially nominate candidates at the top of the ticket. Usually, this is a perfunctory event, but this convention – along with the convention back in April to select the candidates that were just nominated – was a mess of infighting, booing, yelling, and threats.

From a contentious debate over the Lieutenant Governor nominee, just 73 days before the election, to wild applause for extremists like their Attorney General candidate, Matt DePerno, who champions conspiracies about the 2020 election, to alternate slates offered by a break-away group in Macomb County, to reports of physical altercations -- it was a spectacle.

While everything was unfolding, I texted a colleague in attendance:

We need two healthy parties in this country. But unfortunately, the Michigan Republican Party has been in a battle between classic conservatives and those who hold more extremist views for quite some time. And if this recent convention is any indication – it doesn’t look like this fight will be letting up anytime soon. 

It’s Republicans who will have to ultimately restore some sanity in their party. We need brave leaders to reclaim that party. In the meantime, what we can do is send the extreme wing a message in November by shellacking them. Nothing motivates change more than being beaten at the polls. That's the short term goal; the long term goal is a more balanced political system. Because our state and our country are better when we have two functioning parties.