Noah Greble

Last Tuesday was a hard night for Republicans. A blue wave moved across the country and across Michigan, and Oakland County did not escape it. I know many of you who knocked doors, made calls, and gave what you could are feeling the weight of it. But a wave election is also a message, and it's our job to read it and take it to heart. When you look closely at the results here at home, there is a lot to learn from the places where we beat the odds. WHERE WE OVERPERFORMED The races where this party was most directly involved are the races where we ran furthest ahead of the top of the ticket. Troy. Mary Gunn won a seat on the Troy school board in a city where our nominee for governor, John James, carried only about 38% of the vote and did not win a single precinct. Mary finished in a winning position in 15 of Troy's 20 precincts and came in first among Election Day voters. Pontiac. Marcus Bowman won his school board race with 53% of the vote. In the same city, John James received about 24%. Marcus ran roughly 30 points ahead of the top of the ticket and earned over 10,000 votes, compared with about 6,500 for James. Our courts. Our endorsed judicial candidates ran 10 to 15 points ahead of the top of the ticket. Lisa Neilson won the open Circuit Court seat countywide. Carmen DeFranco won the 51st District Court in Waterford with 62%. Clarkston elected our entire school board slate, and Michael Whitney won a seat in Oxford. We also did better than in years past: • John James earned about 24,000 more Oakland County votes than our 2022 nominee and improved the Republican share in 45 of our 52 communities, flipping Bloomfield Hills and Orion Township along the way. • Straight-ticket Republican ballots grew from 23% of all ballots in 2022 to 25% this year. • In our county judicial races, we cut the gap between how often Republican and Democratic voters complete the nonpartisan section of the ballot by about 9 points compared to the last cycle. They are proof that when we show up in a community, make our case, and give voters something to vote for, they respond. Even in a wave. WE ALREADY THREW OUT THE OLD PLAYBOOK This week, a lot of people are saying it's time for the Republican Party to throw out its old playbook. That isn't news to us. When we took over the Oakland County Republican Party, we threw out the playbook that had been used before us, and we were transparent about the new one and how we were implementing it. We did that on purpose. Rebuilding trust with voters, with our grassroots, and with our donors was the most important thing we could do, and transparency was a small price to pay to start that process. But executing a new playbook doesn't mean victory arrives overnight, or even in a single election cycle. Lasting wins require permanent infrastructure: people, data, relationships, and a presence in every community that doesn't disappear the day after an election. The party organization is the only entity that can legally build that infrastructure and coordinate with our candidates at the same time. That is why the work we are doing together matters so much. ELECTIONS ARE WON BEFORE ELECTION DAY For the past three years, we have been building the most innovative absentee and early vote push and chase operation in Michigan - from making sure our voter guide landed in the mail the same day as their ballot, to continued push & chase calls, texts, and door knocks throughout the entire process. We did it because the data has consistently shown how big of an impact it can have. We saw those efforts bear fruit here in Oakland County. We also saw how much ground is left to cover. When Oakland County voters showed up in person on Election Day, Republicans held our own: our straight-ticket votes edged out the Democrats', and our nominee for governor came within about 2.5 points. The gap opened in absentee and early ballots, long before the polls opened. Far too many resources outside of our control were spent only on Election Day, and not on getting in front of voters who already had live ballots in hand. That has to change. I am calling on every future Republican candidate, and on our sister clubs and organizations, to fully embrace absentee and early voting as part of their campaign strategy. Plan for it from day one. Budget for it. Know which of your voters have a ballot at the kitchen table, and make sure they hear from you before it goes back in the mail. The Oakland County Republican Party is ready to help, and we will share what we have learned with anyone willing to do the work. WHAT VOTERS ARE TELLING US What I hear from voters is clear. Voters don't trust politicians, and a lot of them are angry. People don't only vote on policy. They vote on whether life feels harder than it should, and whether the people in charge actually understand that. Families are struggling with the price of groceries, gas, energy, and healthcare. Young people are watching the dream of owning a home move further out of reach. When a family's kitchen table math doesn't match what politicians are saying on TV, they stop listening. Telling people that things were worse before, or that things aren't really that bad, doesn't land with someone who is worried about the next bill. Voters also told us they want results they can see. Controlling government without delivering visible progress is not success, and the actions and inactions of members of our own party gave Democrats easy arguments to make. We also have to be honest about ourselves. Across our party, real grassroots organizing has been allowed to wither. Too much of politics has become online infighting, paid influencers, and outside voices setting the tone. The slow, essential work of one-on-one conversations with neighbors got pushed aside. Primaries became more about collecting the right endorsements and influencers than testing ideas and records. And we spent more time explaining why the other side is worse than asking voters what they want from us. At the end of the day, people vote on whether they believe you are on their side. Our job is to earn that, one conversation at a time, by fighting for lower costs, a better shot at affordable healthcare and energy, and a real path to homeownership for the next generation. WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE LISTENING That's why, over the next few weeks, the Oakland County Republican Party will host a series of listening sessions designed to hear directly from voters in a neutral setting. These will not be rallies or speeches. They will be a chance for us to sit down, ask questions, and listen. Details will be shared soon on our website. REACHING YOUNG VOTERS WHERE THEY ARE In our playbook, we forecasted that young voters would be decisive this cycle, and we used new and innovative ways to reach them. Tuesday showed that this was the right call, and it also showed that it wasn't enough. We need more resources dedicated to this work in the future. And we need real messengers who are present in the communities where young voters live, work, and learn, including on college campuses. We cannot rely on outside organizations that answer to no one here. Reaching the next generation of Oakland County voters has to be our responsibility, and we have to be accountable for it. TEST, LEARN, AND IMPROVE, TOGETHER As we've said many times, testing and learning is at the core of everything we do. As soon as the individual voter file is certified, we will dig further into the data to see where our efforts worked, where we can improve, and where we need entirely new strategies. I want you to be part of that after-action process. You were on the doors, on the phones, and at the polls. You saw things that no spreadsheet will show us. Please share your feedback with us. HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH We are disappointed by last Tuesday's results. But Oakland County Republicans should hold their heads high. We have made real progress rebuilding this party's infrastructure, and we are going to keep building from here. Now is the time to get involved. Come to a listening session. Volunteer in your community. Bring a friend or neighbor into the work. There is so much we can accomplish when we all pull in the same direction. Thank you for everything you did this cycle. I'm proud to stand with you, and I'm ready to get back to work. Sincerely, Vance Patrick Chairman Oakland County Republican Party