Republicans in two key swing states are charting very different paths after getting crushed in 2022

For Republicans in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two critical swing states, the 2022 midterms followed a similar script.

Hugely divisive primaries. Fringe candidates backed by former President Donald Trump ascending to the top of the statewide ballot. Electoral wipeouts that saw Republicans lose every contested statewide office and relinquish control of long-held branches of state legislatures.

Where Republicans in each state differed, though, is on the lessons they took from these defeats and how they are applying them to 2024.

In Pennsylvania, Republicans who clamored for state party leaders to take a more active role early in primaries to prevent another statewide nominee far outside the party’s mainstream — like 2022 gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano — seem to have won the argument. As it stands, businessman Dave McCormick, who narrowly lost the 2022 Senate primary to Mehmet Oz after Trump offered the celebrity TV doctor an eleventh-hour endorsement, seemingly cleared the field before even entering the 2024 Senate race last year. He’s picked up endorsements from the state Republican Party and the entirety of the state’s congressional delegation.

In Michigan, the GOP is presenting a much less united front.

Republicansare in a bitter fight over the potential ouster of the state party chair, Kristina Karamo, whose term followed her defeat as an election-denying nominee for secretary of state in 2022. Her opponents, who include a large group of Michigan GOP committee members who votedrecently to oust her, accuse her of grossly mismanaging the state party, leading it toward bankruptcy and failing to live up to the promises that helped win her the position. On Saturday, a separate group of Michigan Republicans voted to