Letter to The Hillsdale Conservatives, and Michigan Republican Delegates.
For years, Hillsdale County Republicans have been told that the dispute over our representation was complicated.
It is becoming considerably less complicated.
The Michigan Republican Party Credentials Committee has now unanimously denied the delegation submitted under Brent Leininger’s authority for the August 22 State Convention.
That is significant.
Not because the Leininger organization has never been rejected before.
It has, numerous times.
District 5 has never accepted the Leininger organization as the lawful representation of Hillsdale County. Credentials committees have acted against Leininger-submitted delegations on multiple occasions. The Michigan Republican State Convention itself has previously acted on Hillsdale through the Fifth District caucus report, in support of the lawful Hillsdale delegates.
What is different this time is simple:
For the first time, the Credentials Committee itself unanimously agreed that the Leininger delegation should not be seated.
No split vote.
No procedural compromise.
No kicking the problem another two years down the road.
Unanimous.
That is what accountability is supposed to look like.
This Did Not Happen Overnight
Hillsdale’s representation problem has been before the Republican Party for years.
District 5 acted.
Credentials committees acted.
The State Convention acted.
The Policy Committee acted.
The issue returned anyway.
Again.
And again.
One of the greatest weaknesses of political institutions is their tendency to lose their memory every election cycle.
New convention. New committee. New officers.
Suddenly everyone behaves as though the previous four years never happened.
District 5 refused to do that.
It remembered.
And when the same problem returned in 2026, Fifth Congressional District Chairman Ben Myers brought it before the Credentials Committee again.
This time, every member agreed.
Accountability has no meaning if decisions never have consequences.
Support Hillsdales Lawful Delegates
The Credentials Committee has answered one question:
The Leininger delegation will not represent Hillsdale County at this State Convention.
Good.
But removing an improper delegation cannot logically mean removing Hillsdale County with it.
Hillsdale Republicans still exist.
Our precinct delegates still exist.
Our grassroots still exist.
And an alternative Hillsdale delegation was already submitted to the Credentials Committee as Exhibit D of the Hillsdale County Credentials Challenge.
That creates the obvious next question:
Who represents Hillsdale now?
A Motion to Seat the Lawful Hillsdale County Delegation is being prepared for the State Convention floor Saturday.
The motion does not ask the Convention to reconsider whether the Leininger delegation should be seated.
That question has already been answered.
Unanimously.
The remaining issue is whether Hillsdale County will receive representation after the rejected delegation has been removed.
This Is Where the Grassroots Comes Back In
Something encouraging has happened since the Credentials Committee decision.
Republicans from other districts have stepped forward.
There is a delegate prepared to make the motion.
Another prepared to second it.
Others are prepared to speak to the issue.
District leaders from outside Hillsdale have expressed substantial support for allowing the question to reach the Convention floor.
And that is exactly how a grassroots political party should work.
Not one county begging another county for permission.
Not insiders trading favors.
Not Party leadership deciding which Republicans are sufficiently convenient.
Grassroots supporting grassroots. Republicans supporting Republicans.
Hillsdale Republicans have spent years fighting for the ability to participate in their own Party.
Republicans elsewhere in Michigan understand that the same principle protects them.
Because if the grassroots can be pushed out in Hillsdale, the mechanism can be used somewhere else tomorrow.
The county changes.
The principle does not.
Thank You to District 5
Ben Myers deserves credit for bringing the challenge forward and forcing the question to be answered.
District 5 deserves credit for something even more important:
consistency.
It did not suddenly discover Hillsdale this week.
District 5 has maintained its position through years of controversy, multiple conventions, competing delegations and repeated attempts to push the underlying problem aside.
That institutional memory matters.
The easiest way to defeat accountability is simply to wait until everyone gets tired of enforcing it.
And Thank You to Every District That Voted for Accountability
The representatives from Michigan’s other congressional districts deserve the same recognition.
Not because enforcing the rules was some extraordinary favor to Hillsdale.
It wasn’t.
It was their responsibility.
And they performed it.
The important thing about the unanimous Credentials Committee vote is that the Hillsdale question was no longer being answered only by people who have always fought for accountability.
Representatives from across Michigan examined the matter and finally reached the same conclusion.
The delegation should not be credentialed.
After years of ambiguity, unanimous a remarkably clear statement.
Saturday Is About Representation
The Credentials Committee has done its job.
Now the Convention has an opportunity to finish the process.
Hillsdale County should not disappear from the Michigan Republican Party simply because the delegation submitted under Leininger’s authority was rejected.
There are Republicans here who ran.
There are Republicans here who organized.
There are Republicans here who showed up.
There are Republicans here who have continued participating despite years of controversy.
Those people are the grassroots.
And Hillsdale’s alternative delegation represents the continuing effort to restore their voice inside the Party.
This was never supposed to be about which insider controls Hillsdale.
It was supposed to be about Republicans representing Republicans.
That is why the support coming from around Michigan matters.
Not establishment supporting establishment.
Not one political operation rescuing another.
Grassroots supporting grassroots.
Hillsdale’s Republicans have stood their ground for years.
District 5 stood with them.
The State Convention delegation has supported them in the past.
The Credentials Committee has now spoken unanimously.
Saturday gives the broader Michigan Republican grassroots the opportunity to demonstrate that lawful representation and grassroots participation are principles that apply in every county.
Because when the grassroots stands together, the Republican Party grows.
in liberty,
Precinct delegate
Woodbridge Township
Hillsdale Michigan
Lance Lashaway
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