MIGOP chair appears open to primaries for attorney general, secretary of state
MIGOP Chairman state Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, center, and state Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Rockford, right, discuss the future of the Michigan Republican Party Chad Livengood of The Detroit News during the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
MACKINAC ISLAND – Michigan GOP Chair Jim Runestad says he is open to the idea of selecting nominees for attorney general and secretary of state through statewide primaries.
Currently, the candidates are selected by delegates at each party's convention.
'I think the base of the party likes the idea of being able to have input in these statewide positions,' said Runestad, a state senator from White Lake.
State Rep. Bryan Posthumus (R-Rockford) expressed a similar sentiment but added that he sees value in the type of grassroots activists conventions bring out.
Runestad and Posthumus spoke during a discussion on the future of the Michigan Republican Party at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday.
Runestad was selected to lead the Michigan Republican Party in February.
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He said the party had about $800,000 of debt when he first took over, but said he has raised $500,000 since taking over.
'We're vanquishing that debt,' Runestad said. 'I think by year's end, we're going to get most of that down, and into next year, at the end of this term, we certainly will have no debt.'
Runestad said he has vowed to ensure the party has a 'big' fund balance by the end of his term – even if means denying requests for a last-minute spending spree in the run-up to the election.
'We're going to raise the money, we're going to spend the money, but whether it's me or someone else, we're not going to leave that for the next person,' Runestad said.
He said the party has been undergoing a rebuilding process following several years of dramatic internal politics.
'We are on a growth spurt,' Runestad said. 'We have changed everything that was done in the past in terms of the email system, the domain system, the website. We are changing absolutely everything from what it was before into a completely new party.'
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