OTTAWA COUNTY — On the eve of the most contested primary election cycle in Ottawa County history, things went from a little muddy to downright dirty.

Last-minute campaign pushes saw accusations flying between far-right Republicans backed by Ottawa Impact and the traditional Republicans trying to oust them.

The current political climate is supercharged in Ottawa County after far-right fundamentalist group Ottawa Impact formed in 2021 over frustrations with the county and state over COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Read more: Office-seekers: The campaign trail in Ottawa County is getting muddy

The group won a controlling majority on the county board of commissioners in 2022 and now is supporting its incumbents as well as countywide candidates for prosecutor, sheriff and treasurer through the OI-dominated county GOP.

OI’s tenure also saw the county commission sued five separate times in a 14-month timespan between 2023 and 2024 — four remain active as of publication.

That, in turn, inspired non-OI conservatives to vie for public office, resulting in a stunning number of candidates. For the county board of commissioners alone, an unprecedented 33 people are running for 11 seats.

As those races have shaped up, divisions within the local county party have deepened, with cross-endorsement conventions prior to the Aug. 6 primary and assertions that each group is the true local Republican party.

On Sunday, Aug. 4, OI-backed county commissioner candidates Rachel Atwood (District 7) and Roger Belknap (District 9) appeared in social media endorsement posts featuring a prominent image of former President Donald Trump.

Although Trump appears in the imaging and branding, the group endorsing the candidates is actually Michigan Trump Republicans political action committee, a group tied to state Rep. Matt Maddock and his wife, former MIGOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock, who currently is fighting eight felony charges stemming from her participation in an alleged scheme to replace Michigan’s electoral college representatives with a slate of Republicans to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

The Sunday Facebook posts drew ire from the traditional Republicans, who say the local county GOP has been taken over by the Ottawa Impact faction of the party — which in turn ostracized conservatives who didn’t ascribe to far-right ideologies.

“Ottawa Impact and its candidates have used deceptive tactics throughout the campaign to promote their candidates and accomplishments. They promise to improve transparency and integrity to local government but are willing to deceive voters in order to be elected,” said Kurt Van Koevering, chair of Conservative Ottawa, the local PAC supporting the traditional Republican candidates after the county GOP refused to support them.

The Ottawa County GOP voted in June to “denounce and condemn” conservative candidates not endorsed by the party — a historically unprecedented move prior to a primary election — that demanded that the 11 candidates targeted needed to withdraw from their respective races.

The move prompted Conservative Ottawa to host a press conference July 19 where its candidates said they weren’t going anywhere.

“We will not withdraw. We will not stand by and watch the Ottawa GOP and … Ottawa Impact dictate how voters should think or vote. We have primary elections for a reason and we will not tell voters how to think or act,” John Teeples said at the event.

Teeples is running as a non-OI Republican for the county commission’s District 7 seat.

“We called this conference to respond to and reject the Ottawa County GOP’s executive committee’s — which is controlled by Ottawa Impact — outrageous and hypocritical assertion that we Republican candidates that reject the Ottawa Impact brand withdraw from the campaign,” he said.

Atwood, who lists Matt Maddock’s endorsement on her OI-hosted campaign website, also works for the third-term Republican as one of his legislative aides in Lansing.

Van Koevering said the use of Trump’s photo gives voters the impression the former president is endorsing the featured candidates — which typically doesn’t occur at such a hyperlocal level.

“This is not what Ottawa County residents want in their leaders. Voters are looking for men and women of integrity to represent and do what is in the best interest of all citizens. We denounce the tactics of Ottawa Impact and the Michigan Trump Republicans PAC for attempting to deceive voters and imply that former President Donald Trump has endorsed the candidacy of certain county commissioners,” Van Koevering said.

“We ask that Ottawa Impact along with the Michigan Trump Republicans PAC withdraw this endorsement and operate their campaigns with the integrity that Ottawa County demands of its leaders.

The posts are the latest in what opponents say has been a string of inappropriate campaign tactics by OI, the Ottawa GOP and their proxies. Recent accusations from the traditional Republicans including lack of access to public Facebook groups, personal attacks from OI candidates and their supporters and information being shared with voters that is misleading or not true.

On Monday morning, Aug. 5, a text from OI-backed countywide candidates Jon Anderson (sheriff), Ben Genser (treasurer) and Greg Todd (prosecutor) claimed they were the “true, genuine Republicans” running for office.

“In Ottawa County this election cycle, you may have noticed a troubling trend which demands attention. Campaign signs for candidates posing as Republicans appear alongside those of well-known Democrats,” the text read. “This is a tactic that is more than just a coincidence — it reveals the disturbing level of deception at play in an attempt to spoil our Republican primary.”

The message didn’t disclose who was paying for the campaign text message push and the number associated with the message was not set up to receive phone calls.

Teeples’ campaign manager, Bob Davis, said the messaging is a last-ditch effort to distract and confuse voters.

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“This last-ditch endorsement is an attempt by Ottawa Impact to distract the voters of Ottawa County from the real issues that they care about. They want to shift the focus away from their record of fiscal mismanagement, incompetent, leadership and endless lawsuits,” Davis said.

“Our constituents have told us over and over that they want these issues addressed when we talked with them on the campaign trail. We need to get down to the business of healing our community with good governance.”

— Contact Sarah Leach at SentinelLeach@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @SentinelLeach. Subscribe to her content at sentinelleach.substack.com.