MORE CONVENTION FALLOUT

Tony Daunt

Just days after the GOP nomination brawl at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids,  there were more signs of the growing division in the state Republican party with the resignation of Tony Daunt from the 100-member  Republican State Committee, which is generally charged with helping set the future course of the party in Michigan. Daunt, one of two GOP members of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, is considered one of the titans for the state Republican party. Props to reporter Craig Mauger of The Detroit News, who got his hands on the resignation announcement email in which Daunt  called Donald Trump an “undisciplined loser” and criticized “cowardly party ‘leaders’” who have allowed the election this year to be a “test of who is most cravenly loyal to Donald Trump,” rather than a contest against Democrats. One former Republican state lawmaker sized up the party divide as creating a problem come November when the re-litigation of the 2020 election may drive some Republicans to just stay home or to jump to the Democrat column on the ballot, not to mention turning off independent voters.