U.S. Taxpayers’ Party of Michigan Holds State Convention

On Saturday, July 23rd, 2022, the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party of Michigan held its 2022 State Convention to nominate candidates for the upcoming midterm elections on November 8th.

The U.S. Taxpayer’s Party of Michigan is the recognized Michigan state affiliate of the Constitution Party. The event was held at Immanuel Baptist Church in Corunna, MI which is located within Shiawassee County, about a 40-minute drive NE of Lansing. The state convention keynote speaker was Bradlee Dean of the Sons of Liberty podcast.

William Mohr II, the son of recently deceased party chair William “Bill” Mohr, was nominated as Convention Chair. It served as an emotional moment amongst the delegates. Mohr grabbed the gavel and raised it up so everyone could see and stated as he was choking back tears, saying “thank you for the nomination. It is an honor to hold the gavel that my father held for so many years.”

Convention delegates and candidates were well dressed and groomed in either their “Sunday best” or casual dress party attire. However, a middle-aged man showed up with long hair wearing black shorts, a black t-shirt, a black cap, black casual bumming around shoes, and most importantly a tattoo of three black skulls on his left leg. When the man stepped on stage and walked behind a podium that read “Immanuel”, I knew then that this wasn’t going to be a typical party convention.

The main race was the contested nomination for the office of Governor of Michigan to which there were three candidates:

1. Doug Levesque of the Bible Nation Society;
2. Valerie Willis, previous USTPM nominee for the House of Representatives and Senate; and
3. Donna Brandenburg, disqualified Republican candidate for Governor.

USTPM Chairman Jerry Van Sickle, a diesel mechanic with four decades of experience and the face of an Old Testament prophet or ZZ Top, began to become anxious when Bradlee Dean went over his scheduled one-hour speech as he was looking at his watch. Bradlee Dean must have noticed this because he called the USTPM chairman and asked, “When a preacher says he’s almost done [it] means what?” Chairman Sickle laughed and said “20 minutes”, to which Bradlee Dean said “he’s not done” to a roar of laughter.

After the keynote speech reached its conclusion, Bradlee Dean requested a short Q&A session. A courteous and respectful host, Chairman Sickle acquiesced to his guest’s request. Twenty-Seven minutes later, the convention was still on question one! When Chairman Sickle finally got back control of the meeting, he exclaimed “Wow!”

When the convention finally reached the time for Gubernatorial nominations, each candidate was given up to ten minutes to speak before convention delegates.

Doug Levesque spoke on parental rights, his desire to reform education spending as he feels that certain schools are being given too much money from the State while others are given too little, and his desire to bring fiscal responsibility to Lansing. The State Budget of Michigan has increased from under $50 billion to well over $70 billion in the last decade. He also bluntly but respectfully criticized Donna Brandenburg for coming to the USTPM only after she was disqualified from the Republican Primary.

Donna Brandenburg spoke next and in her speech, she referenced having felt being called by God to run for governor and then being cheated because the powers that be are afraid of her. She criticized “the system”, calling it corrupt, and expressed her desire to help build the USTPM/CP to “take it on”. Brandenburg proudly made known her endorsement by General Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor to then President Trump.

Valerie Willis spoke last. She gave a powerful speech about restoring the Constitutional Republic. After concluding her speech, Doug Levesque walked over to her, shook her hand, and said that she had given the best speech of the convention.

In the end, this was Donna Brandenburg’s day as she took the nomination. After her acceptance speech, Brandenburg invited all delegates and nominated candidates to join her in a circle to pray. Chairman Sickle subsequently adjourned the meeting, beginning and ending the 2022 USTPM State Convention in prayer.