In 2015, after working for and with Republicans since my first days in politics, I watched Donald Trump come down an escalator in Manhattan and said, “Not for me.” Now, a decade later, more than70% of the country is right there with me. In the closing weeks of this election, Republicans are trying to fight to prove they aren’t fully aligned with Trump, as we barrel towards another Trump-centered midterm that could create Michigan’s second Democratic trifecta in the Trump era.
But I don’t think it's because Michigan has necessarily become more liberal. I think it's because Michigan Republicans have moved so far into Trump’s circus tent that they’ve left traditional GOP voters behind. I’m tired of hearing about scandal after scandal that could
have been prevented. It’s just embarrassing.
The realignment of the GOP over the last decade has left people who have historically voted for Republicans out in the cold. Take Carlos Gutierrez, former CEO of Kellogg’s and U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush, who described himself to the Kalamazoo Gazette this past week as a “Republican who is trying to find his party.” That’s right. A George W. Bush senior appointee who ran a company right here in Michigan can’t find his party anymore. Because, like me, he feels left out.
I didn't leave the GOP, the GOP left me
I badly want to vote for candidates who fall into the old model of “Chamber of Commerce Republican.” I’m not a liberal, let alone a progressive. But my ballot will still be purple, no matter how red I wish it could be.
I like lower taxes, I like less government interference in my life, I’d prefer lower regulations (within reason) and I think it's up to me, not government, to determine the future success of my life. I’d like it to be easier to do business in Michigan.
Call me old fashioned, but the idea of pulling myself up by my own bootstraps is my method of choice. Is that a highly privileged sentence? Of course. Have I earned my reputation through hard work and sometimes sheer luck? Also yes.
But I’d also like to pay less for my self-funded health insurance, purchased through the federal marketplace, and I’d like a lower cost of living that doesn’t involve paying for tariffs on goods that I need for daily life. I’ve spent a lot of time on Michigan’s (still bad) roads this fall paying nearly $5 a gallon for gas, and I have to say: This isn’t fun. And the campaign stunt of rolling back the state gas tax won’t fix it ‒ it’ll just lead to a bigger hole in next year’s state budget.
I’d also like less anger. I’d like to dial back the yelling and the family feuds that have resulted from the highly politicized lives so many of us are leading. I’d like to see people escape the cults they have joined, both MAGA and Democratic Socialist of America style-Democrats, that have created division in families and friendships that have broken people’s lives apart.
Michigan's moderates have nowhere to go
Where are my moderates? Where are my normies? Where are the rational people who are willing to work across all the aisle to make good public policy that can help Michigan, and maybe the nation, get on better footing?
Oh, that's right. They didn’t make it out of the primaries, because the edges of the parties have taken over.
I want to vote for the Republican Party up and down the ballot. But until the GOP figures out how to welcome back the voters who believe in limited government, personal responsibility, economic opportunity and basic decency, it's going to keep losing elections it should be able to win. Until Republicans recognize that they've pushed people like me out of the party, they'll continue handing elections to Democrats.
And I'll continue filling out a purple ballot, wishing I had a reason to make it a little more red.
Free Press contributing columnist Andrea Bitely is the founder and principal of Bitely Communications, a Lansing-based public affairs firm specializing in political, corporate and crisis communications. From September 2025 through May 2026, she served as director of communications for former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's now-ended independent gubernatorial campaign.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The road to another Democratic trifecta runs through the GOP | Opinion
