DEXTER, Mich. — Multiple Michigan Republicans have made the surprising choice of endorsing Curtis Hertel Jr., the Democratic congressional candidate in the hotly contested race for the Lansing-area seat.
This is not the first time Republicans have endorsed Tom Barrett’s opponent.
In 2022, then-Rep. Liz Cheney gave her first-ever endorsement of a Democrat to Elissa Slotkin for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District.
Cheney, the daughter of the Iraq War’s chief proponent, came out against Barrett, an Iraq War veteran, saying, “We need serious, responsible, substantive members like Elissa in Congress.”
Now a Michigan GOP team has once again thrown its support to a Democrat in the district, which Slotkin is leaving for a Senate bid.
At a Wednesday campaign event, Hertel appeared alongside several Michigan Republicans endorsing him for Congress.
“The House ain’t what it used to be,” said former Rep. Joe Schwarz.
“And we want to bring it back to what it used to be and bring it back to having strong, independent-thinking Democrats and Republicans in the House.”
Speaking to The Post, Brett Gillespie, a Republican Grand Ledge city council member, explained his endorsement: “I know he is a member of the Democratic Party, but I think he puts his constituents first. He was a fighter for the Ultium battery plant here in Delta Township, which is right near where my city’s at.”
Barrett seems unconvinced the Republican endorsements will hurt his campaign, though he narrowly lost to Slotkin when the same thing happened two years ago.
“It’s a little bit desperate,” he told The Post over the phone as he was hard at work making a pizza for his family dinner.
“The same day that this coalition was announced, number one, one of ‘em removed his name. And on top of that, this poll came out showing me with a substantial lead in the race.”
In Barrett’s view, his Republican opponents are compromised by their business interests.
“I think they owe it to people to be candid and be like, look, these are overwhelmingly made up of people who are lobbyists,” said Barrett.
“Jeff Timmer, one of the names on the list, is well known for his affiliation with the Lincoln Project. So he now has monetized the position of being the token Republican to oppose any Republican candidate.”
The Lincoln Project is a Never Trump Republican political action committee.
Asked how he would respond to Republicans such as Gillespie who call Hertel “bipartisan,” Barrett referred to his record as a state senator.
“I had more than three dozen bipartisan bills that I sponsored that were signed into law, some by Republican governor Rick Snyder, some by Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer. I had a record of accomplishment that I’m not afraid to stack up against anybody else, let alone Curtis Hertel.”
While the Republican Party may suffer from in-fighting, the Democrats have their fair share too.
At President Biden’s recent rally in Detroit, no prominent Democrat up for re-election appeared with him.
The United Auto Workers president was also absent.
Barrett, who will join Donald Trump at his Saturday rally in Grand Rapids, said, “There was nobody. Biden was in Detroit. My opponent wasn’t there, Slotkin wasn’t there. None of them want to be seen with him.”
This internal division spells trouble for Democrats in Michigan, which is a “Midwestern manufacturing state that is exactly the type of state that Trump is appealing to,” Barrett said before pausing and adding, “Sorry, this pizza caught on fire as I was talking to you.”
Barrett’s opponent Hertel dodged the question of whether he wants to campaign alongside Biden by changing the subject to soft-serve ice cream, saying, “If any president came to this district and wanted to have a conversation, we would be more than happy to have it. Look forward to seeing him and getting a Tasty Twist down the street.”
