New details emerge in Michigan Republican Party fight where delegate kicked county chair in the groin: FOIA

02 August 2023

Editor's note: This report has been updated to include additional supporting links and to fix a typo.

Critics of the Michigan Republican Party have complained that instead of becoming more moderate, they have responded to major disappointments by becoming more extreme.

Those disappointments, for the Michigan GOP, range from now-President Joe Biden winning the state in 2020 to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defeating far-right GOP challenger Tudor Dixon by 11 percent in 2022. The Michigan GOP is presently headed by Kristina Karamo, a conspiracy theorist and Big Lie promoter who ran for Michigan secretary of state but lost badly to incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson.

WZZM-TV Channel 13 (the ABC affiliate in Grand Rapids) reports that documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request offer details on a violent conflict that occurred during a recent Michigan GOP meeting in the Doherty Hotel in Clare. And the Republicans involved in that incident have very different versions of what occurred.

WZZM 13's Steven Bohner, in an article published on August 1, reports, "Mark DeYoung, Allegan County Commissioner for District 2, alleges that he was assaulted by James Chapman, a Michigan GOP delegate. During an interview directly following the incident, DeYoung told investigators from the Clare Police Department that he was attending a closed-door meeting of the executive committee of the Michigan GOP just prior to the assault."

DeYoung, according to Bohner, alleged to police that Chapman kicked him in the crotch when he went to answer a door.

"Chapman was also interviewed by police directly following the incident, but his story differed from DeYoung's account," Bohner reports. "Chapman told investigators that no fight occurred in the hotel, but later backtracked from that statement. Chapman's account begins with him describing that he was up against the door outside of the meeting, trying to listen in. He said that a man came up to the door and accused him of 'f*****g with the door.'"

Bohner adds, "Chapman then told police that the man threatened to 'kick his ass,' and he replied by telling the man to 'come outside and do it.' Chapman claims that the man then came outside and attempted to fight him."

Read WZZM 13's full report at this link.

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