Ronna Romney McDaniel elected Michigan's GOP chair

LANSING – Republican National Committeewoman Ronna Romney McDaniel won a first-ballot victory at the Michigan Republican Party convention Saturday, defeating two other candidates to become state party chairwoman.

McDaniel, a party activist from Northville and niece of Michigan native and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was widely endorsed by the party establishment but also had significant support from tea party activists. She succeeds Bobby Schostak, a commercial property developer who has served as chairman the past four years.

McDaniel was elected on the first ballot with about 55% support after voting by about 2,000 delegates, officials said. The convention made the selection unanimous.

In her acceptance speech, McDaniel quickly set her sights on 2016. No Republican presidential candidate has won Michigan's electoral votes since 1988.

"We might not agree on everything, but we can agree that seven years of liberal Obama policies have a destructive effect on our nation and we need to get a Republican in the White House through Michigan in 2016," McDaniel told the convention crowd after her election.

"All of you who did not support me, I hope I can win your support and trust."

McDaniel was the clear front-runner heading into Saturday's vote, citing her fund-raising ability, campaign experience and emphasis on improving input from the party's grassroots.

The other candidates were Norm Hughes, a designer and builder from Metamora Township in Lapeer County; and Kim Shmina, a nurse practitioner from Fair Haven in St. Clair County.

McDaniel said she is stepping down immediately as a Michigan representative on the Republican National Committee, a post she was elected to in 2014. The party's state committee will elect her replacement and she will stay neutral on that choice, she said.

Mike Farage, an anti-tax activist from Grand Rapids, told the Free Press he voted for McDaniel because she is the candidate most willing to confront divisions in the party and the lack of minority involvement, which he said is "the elephant in the room" when Republicans gather.

McDaniel represents "the new standard that the Republican party has to have," Farage said.

John Mularoni of Bloomfield Hills was at the convention supporting Hughes, who he said is unique in having the required executive, management and campaign experience.

"I honestly don't think Ronna is the strongest candidate to grow the Republican party in Michigan," Mularoni said.

Hughes, who campaigned for former President Ronald Reagan and worked in his administration, showed delegates an old clip of Reagan urging support for Hughes, who ran for Congress in 1978 and 1980.

McDaniel, a married mother of two, worked on her uncle's presidential campaign in Michigan and served on the GOP state committee. She has served as a precinct delegate, worked as a manager for the staffing firm Ajilon, as a business manager for the video company Mills James Productions, and as a production manager for SRCP Media.

She is the daughter of Ronna Romney, a former U.S. Senate candidate who attended the convention, and Scott Romney, an attorney who is Mitt Romney's brother.

"The over-riding theme of my campaign is unity," McDaniel told reporters. "We have a lot of different factions in our party. We need to get them to coalesce if we're going to be successful."

Among the points of division is Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema, whose comments and social media postings have been widely condemned as racist and anti-gay. McDaniel had refused to be drawn into the controversy while on the RNC, though RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and outgoing Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak are among those who have called on Agema to resign.

"Dave and I have had private conversations; I'm going to keep them private," McDaniel said Saturday. "There is no mechanism for removal. He's not going to step down, so we're going to move forward."

On Friday night, party stalwarts Norm Shinkle and Paul Welday were ousted as chairs of the 8th and 14th districts as part of a broader shake-up of party leadership.

Shinkle, a member of the Board of State Canvassers and and a former state senator who retained his seat on the Michigan Republican State Committee, was defeated as 8th District chair by former state representative Tom McMillin of Rochester Hills, who in the August primary lost the GOP congressional nomination to U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, who backed Shinkle for district chair.

Welday, a former chair of the Oakland County Republican Party who has been active in Republican politics in both Michigan and Washington, D.C., was upset in the 14th District by Janine Kateff, a Republican activist from Oakland County.

Though Kateff's tenure in the state party is shorter than Welday's, she has worked for the state party and is not closely identified with the party's tea party wing.

But in general, the tea party or "liberty" wing of the party made gains Friday night,. David Dudenhoefer of Detroit, who in 2012 was state coordinator for libertarian Ron Paul's presidential campaign in Michigan, was elected chairman of the 13th District.

Still, the tea party did not make a clean sweep. In the 11th District, for example, incumbent district chair Mike Mitchell fought off a challenge from Matt Maddock, a tea party activist who unsuccessfully challenged state Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake, in the August primary.

The tea party also made gains on the state committee, which oversees party operations.

"The Michigan Republican State Committee changed dramatically tonight," Republican consultant John Yob, who heads Strategic National in Grand Rapids and counts Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky among his clients, tweeted Friday night.

Republican strategists Saul Anuzis and Greg McNeilly said there was a concerted effort by supporters of Paul, a likely presidential candidate, to change the make-up of the state committee in order to move away from a 2016 presidential primary toward a closed caucus or convention for picking delegates to the national convention. Both said changes to the state committee made Friday night would not tip the balance in favor of such a move.

Anuzis and McNeilly said they support a closed primary -- rather than the open primaries used now in which Democrats can vote -- but Michigan first needs to move to a party registration system, making such a change not practical before 2020.

Yob said "it sounds like Saul is making excuses for his last remaining allies losing their races. Conservatives are united around the fact that rules should not allow known Democrats to vote in any GOP primary ever again, and waiting until 2020 to stop it is ridiculous."

Schostak said his party is well-positioned to put the state's electoral votes behind a Republican presidential candidate in 2016.

"We've accomplished a great deal," said Schostak, who is wrapping up four years as party chairman after serving two years as finance chairman. "We're probably better prepared than ever before in terms of our ground game."

Schostak, who was party finance chairman when the GOP swept major statewide offices in 2010 and party chairman when it repeated that feat in 2014, cited major changes in get-out-the-vote efforts, the opening of permanent offices in Detroit and across the state. Also, "we raised more money than ever before," he said.

Two main prizes eluded Schostak. The Republican lost U.S. Senate races in both 2012 and 2014 and President Barack Obama won Michigan in 2012.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.