MAGA Mania (Guest: Denver Riggleman)



We’ve got a MAGA alert agenda this week:

  • Michigan Republicans have a battle of election deniers for chair of their party. 
  • Some top Michigan Republicans want to draft charisma-challenged Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to lead the 2024 ticket. 
  • In Ottawa County, the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party is on full display with a purge of county officials who aren’t radical enough for the new county commission. 
  • And the MAGA wing is looking at a takeover of some mid-Michigan school boards. 

The MAGA-craziness is on display in DC as well, with reality-adjacent people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan now into power positions in the U.S. House…which also features a couple of committee assignments for the Congressman currently known as George Santos.

Joining the conversation this week is former Republican Denver Riggleman of Virginia. A former Air Force officer and National Security Agency contractor, Riggleman was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2018. He was defeated in his bid for reelection in 2020, losing to Republican primary challenger Bob Good in a drive-through party convention. 

Riggleman co-authored a book with Hunter Walker titled, The Breach, which was published in October of 2022. The book detailed his work on the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 AttackHe is the only member of the Republican party to speak on the House of Representatives floor against QAnon. He is a co-sponsor of 2020 US House resolution “Condemning QAnon and rejecting the conspiracy theories it promotes”. He is also one of the co-authors of the Network Contagion Research Institute report called “THE QANON CONSPIRACY: Destroying Families, Dividing Communities, Undermining Democracy” which he wrote before the January 6 storming of the US Capitol.

This week in Michigan politics: 

===========================

This week’s podcast is underwritten in part by EPIC-MRA
EPIC ▪ MRA is a full service survey research firm with expertise in:
• Public Opinion Surveys
• Market Research Studies
• Live Telephone Surveys
• On-Line and Automated Surveys
• Focus Group Research
• Bond Proposals – Millage Campaigns
Political Campaigns & Consulting
Ballot Proposals – Issue Advocacy Research
Community – Media Relations
Issue – Image Management
Database Development & List Management