Lansing, Mich. — A Thursday memo from Paul Cordes, the chief of staff for the Michigan Republican Party, blamed the party's historic midterm election losses on GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon's performance and an internal power struggle.
On Tuesday, Michigan Democrats won majorities in the Michigan Legislature for the first time in 40 years. Democrats won 20 of the 38 seats in the Michigan Senate and 56 of the 110 seats in the state House.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer captured a second term by 10 percentage points over Dixon, a first time candidate from Norton Shores.
Dixon under-performed other GOP candidates and failed to keep the governor's race close enough to give Republicans "a chance at keeping majorities in both chambers," Cordes wrote in his memo. Tudor's performance cost the party "around the edges in the close House and Senate races" and the GOP is "out of majorities because of it," Cordes contended.
"Tudor's efforts focused largely on Republican red meat issues, in hopes of inspiring a 2020-like showing at the polls," Cordes added. "There were more ads on transgender sports than inflation, gas prices and bread and butter issues that could have swayed independent voters.
"We did not have a turn out problem — middle-of-the-road voters simply didn't like what Tudor was selling."
Dixon, a former political commentator, fired back on social media Thursday night, saying the memo was "the perfect example" of what is wrong with the Michigan Republican Party. She said the issue with the party is the leadership of Chairman Ron Weiser, Co-Chairwoman Meshawn Maddock and Cordes.
"It's easy to come out and point fingers now, but the truth is they fought against me every step of the way and put the entire ticket at risk," Dixon said. "We need fresh leadership at the @MIGOP or Republicans will never have a voice in Michigan again."
Cordes fired right back late Thursday. In a statement, Cordes said Dixon's tweets were "a clear lie." "We turned out more Republicans than in previous midterm elections," Cordes said. "I'm struggling to find what parts of the memo, based on data from this past Tuesday, she's struggling with. Our memo speaks for itself."
The back-and-forth came two days after the Michigan Republican Party's losses on Election Day. It also occurred ahead of an expected fight about the next chair of the party.
Cordes said in his memo that Dixon had "almost no cash on hand" after winning the Aug. 2 primary and faced "millions of dollars in unanswered advertisements" using her own words on the subject of abortion.
The Republican nominee opposed abortion, including in cases involving rape and incest, as a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution was on the ballot. Most of Dixon's primary opponents held the same view except for Metro Detroit businessman Kevin Rinke, who said he supported exceptions for incest and rape.
Voters viewed "Tudor and Proposal 3 as a package deal" at the polls, Cordes wrote.
"Because of that, there was likely never any real chance at defeating what is truly one of the most evil and extreme constitutional amendments ever put before voters," Cordes said.
Proposal 3 passed with 57% support on Tuesday.
Cordes also touched on former President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Dixon, attorney general candidate Matt DePerno and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo.
"In what many of them saw as sending a message to Donald Trump and his supporters, longtime donors to the party remained on the sidelines despite constant warnings of the possibility of the outcome we saw come to fruition on Election Day: A statewide sweep and one-party Democratic rule in Lansing, something that has not been seen in nearly 40 years in Michigan," Cordes said.
"Countless hours spent courting donors consistently shifted into back and forths about Mar-a-Lago's influence over our process, party and voters," Cordes said. "All while Democrats raised tens of millions of dollars and invested record amounts statewide and in legislative districts."
High-quality, substantive candidates and well-funded campaigns are critical to winning elections, Cordes wrote.
"We struggled in both regards to the detriment of Michiganders across the state," he said.
