In Michigan, a ranting, QAnon-adjacent fired weatherman is trying to pass himself off as a moderate Republican

MAGA Republicanism has a pretty simple recipe for success: untested political novice with celebrity appeal, plus right-wing populism, equals election victories.

Herschel Walker. Dr Oz. Kari Lake. Donald Trump. Even Mark Robinson, the embattled GOP candidate for governor in North Carolina, is a product of a viral video who vaulted him to political relevance.

On Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the local Republican Party is hoping that strategy will deliver a long-awaited victory in a bid to erase Democrats from the region entirely. Their target: Jenn Hill, state house representative for the 109th district, and the last Democrat representing the Upper Peninsula in Lansing, where her party is defending a rare bicameral majority this fall.

Enter Karl Bohnak, MAGA’s latest and greatest shot at taking the district. He fits the mold perfectly — an ex-weatherman, described as a “veteran of a couple marriages”, fired in 2021 after he refused to get the Covid vaccine in violation of Gray Television company policy. Bohnak is something of aweather fanatic who became regionally famous both for his obsession with Michigan weather patterns, which he would share on air, as well as his broadcasted frustrations with the network’s technical troubles. A memorable video from his WLUC days still can be found on Google where Bohnak, clearly out of his technological depth, mutters a string of curses as he attempts to operate a Facebook Live.

But it was his firing that picked up national attention, including a Washington Post profile. Bohnak, at the time described as “perhaps… the most famous” living resident of the Upper Peninsula by a local newspaper based in the region, was suddenly out of a job after more than 30 years in front of the cameras.