© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., February 24, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
By Nathan Layne
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (Reuters) -Donald Trump won the Missouri Republican caucuses on Saturday and was dominating in Michigan’s nominating contest, which was being held amid simmering internal turmoil in the key battleground state.
The Associated Press called the Missouri race for Trump as votes were still being tallied but showed the former U.S. president far ahead of Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination.
In Michigan, Trump had trounced Haley in the 12 districts reporting caucus results, according to a tally reported by the state Republican Party. Only one district had not yet completed its vote.
Michigan will be fiercely fought in November’s general election, a likely rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
More than 1,000 party insiders participated in the presidential caucus in the western Michigan city of Grand Rapids, where they were choosing delegates for Trump or former U.N. Ambassador Haley for the party’s national nominating convention in July.
Republicans were also holding caucuses in Idaho on Saturday, one of the final contests for Haley to alter the course of the race prior to Super Tuesday on March 5, the biggest day in the primaries, when 15 states and one territory will vote.
With victories in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, South Carolina and now Missouri under his belt, Trump is far and away the frontrunner in the race, with Haley hanging on thanks to support from donors keen for an alternative to the former president.
For this election cycle, Michigan Republicans devised a hybrid nominating system, split between a primary and a caucus.
Trump won the primary convincingly on Tuesday, securing 12 of 16 delegates up for grabs. He looked set to take all of Michigan’s remaining 39 delegates at stake on Saturday.
At one of the 13 caucus meetings, the participants – knowing Trump would win easily – decided to save time by simply asking anyone who backed Haley to stand up. In a room of 185 voting delegates, 25-year-old Carter Houtman was the only person who rose to his feet.
“It was a little lonely,” Houtman told Reuters in an interview afterward.
Houtman said he would likely vote for Trump in November’s general election if he is the nominee but felt it was important to stand up for his beliefs on Saturday.
“I didn’t like the way that Trump handled himself after the last election,” Houtman said.
The contest in Michigan on Saturday held the potential for confusion. Internal turmoil has been percolating in the party for months, pitting backers of Michigan’s former Republican Party chair, Kristina Karamo, against the faction of party members who voted to oust her on Jan. 6, and installed Pete Hoekstra as chair.
Hoekstra, who Trump backed as chair, was overseeing the convention in Grand Rapids. Karamo had been planning to chair a dueling convention in Detroit on Saturday, but that was canceled after a Michigan court this week affirmed her ouster and an appeals court denied her request to stay the ruling.
At the convention, precinct delegates split into 13 different caucuses, one for each of the state’s congressional districts. If a candidate wins a majority of votes in a caucus they take all three of its delegates, for a maximum total of 39.
Pro-Karamo party chairs for at least two districts had called for caucus meetings separately from Grand Rapids. However, the results from those are unlikely to be accepted by the Republican National Committee, which last month formally recognized Hoekstra as state party chair.
Hoekstra was the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s presidency. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the caucus meetings, he said he was confident the Michigan Republican Party would unite around the objective of winning the White House and a U.S. Senate seat up for grabs and retaking the state House of Representatives.
“There is not a philosophical divide or an issue divide,” Hoekstra said. “This is about getting the party ready to win in November. … The focus is on beating Joe Biden.”
