The Future of the Republican Party

By Crain’s Content Studio

• The Michigan Republican Party needs to expand its base by engaging non-traditional voters if it hopes to become a red state like Ohio.  
• It’s too soon to speculate on the long-term impact of tariffs. 
• Media reports about a new political organization backed by the DeVos family will not replace the Michigan GOP.

Michigan could become a reliably red state, but it won’t happen without a concerted effort, said state Rep. Bryan Posthumus, a Rockford (West Michigan) Republican.  

“If you look at just Ohio, the saying – what – 12 years ago was ‘as Ohio goes, so goes the nation,’… it was that purple of a state,” Posthumus said. “If you look at Florida, and during Gov. DeSantis’ first run for governor, he barely won, and Florida was a purple state at that point. Over the next six years, he turned that a very deep-red state. That can happen in Michigan, too.”  

To do that, state Republicans will need to reach out to non-traditional voters, said state Sen. Jim Runestad, a White Lake Republican. And they will have to consistently message how their policy priorities differ from Democrats.  

“I was able to do that as a state Senator,” Runestad said. “I had the most diverse Senate district in the state of Michigan, so I started reaching out to a lot of different ethnic communities. I was named the Indian Legislator of the Year for the Indian community when they came to Lansing for their annual event. And that’s just an example of what you can do if you’re having that kind of outreach.”  

Runestad said that recent media reports about the DeVos family’s plan to create a new political organization to turn the state Republican will not replace the Michigan Republican Party.  

“It’s hearsay that there’s going to be an entity like this to replace the Michigan Republican Party,” he said. “The Michigan Republican Party is on its way to, I think, be bigger and better than it’s ever been before, and there are going to be no issues between these two entities.”  

Both organizations have the same mission: electing Republicans, he said, adding that he’s talked to Dick DeVos and others involved in the new entity in recent days.  

“I think it’s going to be a different effort in some respects than what we’re going to be doing, but in the mission it’s going to be identical in terms of getting Republicans elected this cycle,” he said. 

A Detroit Regional Chamber poll found that most voters think tariffs will be bad for Michigan, but Posthumus said legislators shouldn’t focus on explaining or defending tariffs at this time. 

“We have all these people pontificating and prognosticating about what’s going to happen, right?” Posthumus said. “And it’s all doom and gloom. … The reality is that there’s never been a time in history where a tariff policy has been implemented such that today, where the interconnectivity of our entire country is as dense as it is today, not to mention the fact that we have no idea what the long-term policy is actually going to be.” 

Runestad said he believes the tariffs will be effective, and that President Donald Trump’s efforts will bring manufacturing back to the United States – and to Michigan.  

“The Big Three and the foreign automakers are all understanding that there’s going to be a price to pay – before it was a benefit for them to leave,” he said. “There’s going to be a price to pay if they’re leaving or if they’re not onshoring here. So, it’s going to take time, but if we don’t do something, we’re not going to have any manufacturing here in the United States.”

This 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference session was crafted in partnership with Crain’s Content Studio.