Tim Skubick

Not everybody in the state was watching them battle it out on the hardwood floor last Saturday.

Not by a long shot.

Far away from the NCAA arena were two other political battles.

About 3000 “No King” anti-Donald Trump rallies unfolded around the nation including in Michigan where about 110 such demonstrations took place including five to six thousand on the state capitol lawn.

When at the same time some 60 miles down I-96 about 2500 staunch President Trump faithful gathered in a convention hall to pick candidates to run for state offices in November. And we focus on that here since it was impossible to be in two places at once.

In Novi the state Republican conclave was dominated by “a vast majority of Trump backers,” according to party chair Jim Runestad. That has been the case for years as in this town they refer to the state GOP as DTP…Donald Trump’s Party.

There was one huge major difference in this session compared to the last time in 2024 when they nominated two political outsiders to run for secretary of state and attorney general. They had no name ID with the general body politic in the state nor access to any kind of cash to run against two seasoned Democrats SOS Jocelyn Benson and AG Dana Nessell. Despite being certified true believers in all things Trump, Matt DePerno and Kristina Karamo were never in it losing by 8 and 14 points respectively.

Now in 2026, even though the rank and file R’s on the convention floor did not have a warm spot in their collective hearts for “career politicians”, they did pick two guys who actually have experience for the jobs they want.

Doug Lloyd is a self-described “bad guy fighter” who currently runs the local prosecutors office in Eaton County. He worked his way up to the top job from his first post in 2000 as an assistant prosecutor. Since then he’s won three elections. And on Saturday he got an impressive 67% of the vote on the first vote.

Former Rep. Anthony (Tony) Forlini is running the clerk’s shop in vote rich and mucho important county of Macomb. That means he has actually presided over his local elections since 2020. He got 55% of the vote on the first ballot which avoided an ugly floor fight with his two female opponents who were trying to claw they way to the nomination by fighting each other.

Chair Runestad, who knows a thing or two about practical politics as he’s been in the state senate for eight years on top of his service in the Michigan House over four years, was beside himself to land two candidates that do have experience which some voters still find attractive.

The gathering however was not without its moments.

Part of the buzz was whether John James would show up. He was the one time “front runner” in a six person GOP primary for governor who is now locked a statical dead heat for his political life with Mr. Money-Bags Perry Johnson who is using his personal wealth to run commercials all over the place, how could you miss them? And it’s working.

Any way while Mr. Johnson was working the convention floor pressing the flesh and flashing his smile, up to podium comes you know who.

The convention chair announced Mr James and the boos were audible and a Trump supporter recorded the outburst and before too long, more than just convention delegates had heard the thing.

Why the shouting him down?

President Trump is none too pleased that Mr. James is leaving his congressional seat in Macomb County which the president desperately wants to win in order to keep control of the U.S. House. The delegates know that and acted accordingly.

Deeply aware of all this back stage drama that could cost him the governor’s job, Team James launched its own pre-emptive strike with a nifty literature drop reminding delegates that many of his opponents did not support Mr. Trump. In the 2024 primary endorsements, Mr. James alleges Aric Nesbitt and Tom Leonard wanted Ron DeSantis, Mike Cox endorsed no one. Ralph Rebandt embraced someone else and the aforementioned Mr. Johnson allegedly spent $30 million to run against Mr. Trump.

Now maybe his team forgot to include this in the flyer but back in 2016, the first time Mr. Trump sought the presidency, Mr. James was all in with Ted Cruz writing at the time, “I voted for my values and I believe Ted Cruz was more aligned with my values.” However by 2018, he wrote he as “2.000% with Mr. Trump and has remained there ever since.

The day ended with everyone hitting the campaign trail with hopes that all the GOP candidates will win in the fall. But the D’s are hoping with the continued “help” of President Trump, they won’t have a chance.