Lloyd, Forlini Win Michigan Republican Party's Endorsements For AG & SOS

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/27/2026) (NOVI) - Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd and Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini won the Michigan Republican Party's endorsements for Attorney General and Secretary of State, respectively, after running on bids centered on experience.

Among Republican delegates, Lloyd defeated Birmingham private attorney Kevin Kijewski 63.2 percent to 36.8 percent, or by 531 votes.

Forlini was in a three-person party race with Monica Yatooma – a critic of Michigan's elections systems and the deputy chief executive officer of Metro Detroit Medical Waste – and Amanda Love, who was an assistant to previous Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land.

Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini with his family, campaign personnel and Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad.

Forlini received 55.19 percent of the vote, Yatooma had gained 25.36 percent and Love walked away with 19.45 percent.

Because the Michigan Republican Party's endorsement convention requires the winning candidate to receive more than 50 percent, Forlini said he anticipated his race to go through an additional round of voting. He walked around the floor of the Vibe Credit Union Showplace in Novi, advising attendees to stick around in case they needed to vote again.

"And when they said we had, what…55 percent? I was blown away. I didn't even get a chance to vote because I was out (working the crowd). When I realized I didn't vote, it was already over," Forlini said. "People in Macomb County, I can tell you, which is a purple county, really are looking for somebody to work hard and just do their job. Put politics aside."

Forlini's office received heightened attention in January when it reported that 239 folks on the Secretary of State's database used to summon jurors were not U.S. citizens, and that 15 of them had been on their voting rolls at some point.

“Honestly, I wasn't sure it was gonna be as big a deal as it was, and we were looking to fix it before we ended up going public,” Forlini said. “There (are) a lot of concerns about the elections, lack of transparency, lack of believability, and if you know anything about what we've done in Macomb County, we made sure we did all the proper protocols, and we continue to make sure elections are secure, bring that sense of security, so people feel comfortable.”

As for his day one priority if elected in November, Lloyd said he's going to take a look at ongoing cases in the Attorney General's office in order to protect Michigan's sovereignty and “actually making sure that we're doing the things for Michigan citizens that benefit Michigan citizens.”

Some Delegates Unsure Walking Up To Vote Between Lloyd Or Kijewski

A handful of party members – of the 2,153 credentialed delegates who attended Friday – were undecided ahead of voting in the Attorney General's race.

For example, Ronald Singer of Warren, a 72-year-old systems designer who tried running against Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren) in 2024, was still contemplating who he would vote for about 40 minutes after his caucus, the 10th Congressional district, was called up to begin voting.

Singer discussed with MIRS how growing expensive races are up-and-down the ballot. He's unsure about running for the state House again personally, following his recent retirement and no longer having the same paychecks to invest in a candidacy.

He talked about being in the "classic situation where they all sound real good," but he wasn't sure their promised fixes would take place in Lansing if elected.

"The biggest challenge always is, the media is against you…it's just gotta hurt you by 15 points," Singer said. "The Democrats seem to be winning a lot, but I think that's right now because they're just plowing a lot of effort into those…off-axis elections that have been going on. So I think they're pounding a lot of effort into that. It's unfortunate that in some cases we're not kind of matching that effort."

Republicans favoring Lloyd lifted his 13-year tenure as Eaton County prosecutor.

He won elections after first being appointed to the role in 2013. For example, 40,366 Eaton County voters in 2024 had cast ballots for Lloyd while he was running unopposed for prosecutor. That same year, President Donald Trump won 50.76 of the county's votes, or 33,106 Eaton County electors.

Lloyd's backers believe his resume makes him a strong match against Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald or Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, the two Democratic candidates for Attorney General endorsement. Their convention is April 19 in Detroit.

Kijewski reached stardom status after successfully representing the Republicans who were charged by Attorney General Dana Nessel in relation to signing Electoral College materials for Trump after he lost Michigan in 2020.

However, there were also Republicans concerned about 2020 domestic violence allegations that Kijewski faced, which include a police report of his then-wife visiting Urgent Care with "evident bruises and excoriations and swelling."

"A lot of people are on the bandwagon of 'youth, youth, youth…' There's nothing wrong with experience. Experience is awesome. (Doug's) won three times . . . he's a winner. He's a hard worker. It seems like he's got very good family support, which is very important. His son is with him everywhere," said Mark Gjokaj, a Warren delegate. "Kevin's a grinder too. He's working really hard, but they will always find something in a closet."

Brian Pannebecker, the founder of Auto Workers for Trump 2024, said he voted for Kijewski, seeing him as a good public speaker and campaigner with "conservative credentials" on him.

"I voted for Kevin, but I'd be happy with either one of those gentlemen," Pannebecker said, noting that Republicans' biggest obstacle in 2026 will be turnout up-and-down the ballot. "We have to work our tails off, and if anybody tries to tell me it's going to be tough this year because Donald Trump is not on the ballot, what I tell them is Donald Trump is on the ballot because if we lose the majority in Congress, he's going to get impeached for the third times."

Runestad's Response To Endorsement Convention Results

Following the victories for Lloyd and Forlini, Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) said he's "100 percent" feeling like Republicans stand a good chance at winning in November.

He talked about Forlini's track record. Forlini served in the state House from 2011 through 2016. In the 2020 Macomb County clerk's race, he took out Democratic incumbent Fred Miller 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent.

In 2024, Forlini won reelection by 77,578 votes, while Trump won Macomb County by 69,683 votes.

"These are two very, very highly qualified candidates," Runestad said. "We're going to have one heck of an Attorney General and Secretary of State's race because of what happened today."

The convention wrapped up before 4 p.m., lacking the same lengthy floor arguments on rules and procedures, as well as multiple rounds of hand-counting ballots, that led to prolonged conventions previously.

While running to be Michigan Republican Party chair, Runestad described conventions as "a crash and burn," with problems being allowed to "percolate up into a frenzy and then deal with it on the floor."

"When I ran, I said I'm going to contact everybody, everyone in the group, someone who has an issue (and) meet with them, which we have been doing for two solid weeks," Runestad said. "The legal team, the parliamentarian and I have been dealing with one issue after another. We got just about every single one of them handled."

Oakland County Republican Party Chair Vance Patrick explained to MIRS that although Democrats have been flipping seats in special elections following Trump's second inauguration, Republicans have been competing in Downriver and Wayne County in ways they hadn't before.

Patrick additionally projects that some of today's economic turmoils contributing to Trump's low approval ratings, like gas prices increased due to war in Iran, could be different by November.

"I shouldn't say I guarantee it, but my opinion is the price of gas will be down by Memorial Day. (Trump's) making progress, and then again, this is not a three-year Cold War, this is a 47-year war," Patrick said. "A lot of people have said, 'oh, we need to go in there and make sure that Iran doesn't have any nuclear weapons.' Donald Trump is doing what everybody else said we should do."

Patrick described the delegates as enthusiastic, wanting to get to work. As well as the 2,153 credentialed delegates in attendance, there were 692 alternates on standby.

Other statewide candidates won unopposed by acclamation, including:

- Oakland County Judge Michael Warren and Oscoda County Judge Cassandra Morse-Bills for Michigan Supreme Court

- Former Grosse Pointe Public Schools board member Terence Collins and Mount Pleasant-based childcare provider Bree Moeggenberg for Michigan State Board of Education

- Christa Murphy and Andy Anuzis for Wayne State University Board of Governors, state Sen. Roger Victory (R-Hudsonville) and second-time candidate Julie Maday for Michigan State University Board of Trustees and Michael Schostak and Lena Epstein for University of Michigan Board of Regents.