State GOP Chair Karamo says meeting of party leaders to possibly oust her, would be invalid

FOX 2 (WJBK) - GOP state chair Kristina Karamo is not backing down.

"My country needs me and this is a duty I will never give up on, because I love my country," she said.

A vote will be held at a special meeting on Saturday —  where she may be ousted as state chair — by her own party.

Reasons calling for her resignation vary — but the Oakland County Republican Party says Karamo is not capable of building the infrastructure the party needs ahead of 2024’s election.

"I was elected by the majority of the delegates to course correct and take the party in a new direction," she said. "Some people don’t like the new direction. They want the status quo, because the status quo padded a lot of people’s pockets."

Karamo says the meeting is invalid and the committee members are not following procedure, so it has no legal standing.

"Individuals can’t simply gather and throw the chair out," she said. "There is a process to remove a committee member. But these individuals have not followed the process."

Let’s say they have this meeting anyway and they vote you out, what happens?

"They can’t vote me out - it’s not a valid meeting," she said. "That’s like me trying to vote the Democrat chair out."

This situation is evolving day by day. FOX 2 caught up with a political science professor who says having your own party turn against you is exceedingly rare.

"I’m not sure if she can do much - short of raising millions and millions of dollars to put the party in a position of strength," said David Dulio. "I’m not sure there’s much she can do."

Dulio, a professor of political science at Oakland University, he says since Karamo took the position as chair in February, there were concerns about her ability to raise money for the party.

The party is in dire straits in terms of fundraising. One of the bigger points of contention is that she and her supporters are trying to sell a building in Lansing the party doesn’t even own, to pay its bills.

Dulio says that if Karamo is voted out, the GOP still needs to rally to prepare for 2024’s election.

"Quite frankly it might even be too late," he said. "They’ve got a lot of debts to pay off."