MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — President Donald Trump’s allies are fuming at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for getting involved in Michigan’s Senate primary, a race that now threatens to divide Republicans.
The Fundraiser Controversy
Duffy is headlining a planned June 4 fundraiser for Rep. Bill Huizenga, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO — a move that puts Duffy at odds with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and 2024 Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita. Duffy has also been advising Huizenga, according to a person familiar with the race.
Duffy, according to the two people close to Trump, never cleared his political engagement with the White House political shop, and has now drawn the ire of Trump’s top political hands. The transportation secretary’s move to fundraise for Huizenga has now prompted threats of a crackdown on Cabinet secretaries’ political activities ahead of the midterms, POLITICO has learned.
White House Response
“He did not ask for it to be approved,” a person close to Trump and granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive political matter told POLITICO of Duffy’s decision. “It would not have been approved. They are old friends and it’s technically for the House so not going to embarrass him by standing it down, but the fact is administration officials are not free agents politically, even in their spare time. You never get ahead of the President.”
Huizenga has told others that a second Cabinet official could fundraise for him but they’re settling on a date. One of the people familiar with Trump’s thinking said they would not allow that to happen.
Trump’s Endorsement Dilemma
Trump hasn’t decided who to endorse yet in Michigan’s Senate race, according to two people close to the president, a contest that arguably represents Republicans’ best chance to widen their majority.
National Republicans have coalesced behind former Rep. Mike Rogers in the Republican’s second run for the office, but Huizenga has been taking steps toward a run.
Republican Establishment vs. Huizenga
Huizenga spent the week at a gathering of Michigan strategists and elected officials on Mackinac Island preparing a run against Rogers and courting prominent national donors, emphasizing in conversations that Rogers failed to beat Democrat Elissa Slotkin for an open Senate seat in the same year Trump won the state.
“I want to make sure we win,” Huizenga told POLITICO when he said he could announce a Senate bid as early as this summer. “The question is: Are we going to run the same play and expect a different result?”
The NRSC’s Stance
Huizenga’s plans undermine the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s plans to clear the field for Rogers, a former Trump critic. Rogers hired LaCivita as his senior adviser.
The Republican establishment — including the top echelons of Trump world — have started to coalesce around Rogers as the nominee.On Wednesday, NRSC political director Brendan Jaspers reposted a poll on X showing Rogers outperforming Huizenga against potential Democratic rivals and suggesting that “the numbers point to one candidate” who can flip the seat for Republicans: Rogers.
