OTTAWA COUNTY – Tuesday was a big night for politics in Ottawa County, as the majority of Ottawa Impact Republicans-backed candidates for county commission and countywide offices lost in the Aug. 6 primary election – and Democrats are hoping for bigger gains.

Ottawa Impact, the far-right fundamentalist group formed in 2021 due to frustrations with the county and state over COVID-19 containment measures, has officially lost its majority on the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners.

The group won a commanding majority on the county board in 2022 and now supports its incumbents as well as statewide candidates for the offices of district attorney, sheriff and treasurer through the OI-dominated county Republican Party.

During OI’s tenure, the County Commission was also sued five times in a 14-month period between 2023 and 2024 – four lawsuits were still pending at the time of publication.

This in turn inspired non-OI conservatives to run for public office, resulting in an astonishing number of candidates. For the county executive alone, an unprecedented 33 people are running for 11 seats.

Who won on Tuesday?

Of the six incumbent OI candidates running for re-election—plus one who is also running for re-election after being voted out in a special recall election in May—four have made it through the primaries and are now in the general election, all of which will face Democrats.

Kuyer was the only former commissioner to face OI opponent Belknap in a rematch – and this time beat him by 16 points.

“I just think it’s great how we came together impartially and saw what was going on in the district. There were more educated people there than ever before,” Kuyers said on Wednesday. “They did research and said: ‘No, we don’t want that. We don’t want that in our district.'”

Matwiejczyk said she was relieved to put the primaries behind her.

“I am excited about the future of the public prosecutor’s office. My employees are visibly relieved. The atmosphere is much lighter. It is wonderful to see that everyone is enjoying their work again and coming to work every day,” she said on Thursday.

She said she will now focus on preparing the top position in her department before District Attorney Lee Fisher retires.

“I think Lee and I have worked so closely together over the last four years that he has included me in pretty much everything, so I have a pretty good idea of ​​it,” she said.

DeBoer himself said he is grateful to have more time to work with current Sheriff Steve Kempker before his planned retirement at the end of the year.

Part of these plans focuses on the planned integration of body cameras for deputy sheriffs and the logistics, storage and maintenance of these recordings.

DeBoer especially wants to convey to his current employees that their needs are always his top priority.

“The people who are our members now weren’t here when I was vice president of the union. A lot of the things they want, things I’ve been talking about for years … Once we make progress and they see what we’re doing, they’ll realize things are going to change,” DeBoer said Thursday.

He pointed out that the changes would not be radical, but rather strategic and long-term in nature.

“We’re not going to change how we serve the community,” he said. “But the things we’ve all talked about for years … we’re going to be a little more transparent about our long-term strategic plan and they’re all going to be involved in that process. They’re going to have input.”

What happens next?

In the upcoming November elections, all eyes will be on Districts 2, 6 and 8; no Democrat will run in the statewide election for public officials.

In the Second District, Democrat Chris Kleinjans defeated former OI Commissioner Lucy Ebel with 20% of the vote in a May recall election. After Ebel lost the Republican primary, Kleinjans will now face Jorritsma in the general election.

In District 6, Wenzel was appointed in November after former Commissioner Kyle Terpstra resigned just hours after Health Commissioner Adeline Hambley filed a motion in Muskegon County Circuit Court asking a judge to enforce a $4 million settlement agreement she reached with commissioners on Nov. 6 in exchange for her resignation. Wenzel will now face Democrat Michelle Dieleman in November.

The race may be the most closely watched of all: Rhodea – co-founder of Ottawa Impact and vice chair of the county commission – will face Democrat Rebecca Patrick in a district that includes Grand Valley State University.

Larry Jackson, chairman of the Ottawa County Democrats, said the top priorities would be to help Kleinjans defend his seat and support Patrick in ousting Rhodea from office.

“Now that they no longer have the majority, the potential chair will change,” Jackson said. “GVSU is so big and it’s the only public college in the West Michigan area. … The national party will support Hillary Scholten’s campaign and hopefully help Patric win in the 8th District. That’s the hope. We’ll do everything we can at the local level, but there’s a lot of money being invested from the larger campaign in Ottawa County to obviously not win.

Patrick said she will focus her efforts on addressing the high student density in her district.

“One of my main goals was to start doing this as soon as people go back to school here at the end of August, because if they’re not registered to vote here, they can’t vote here,” Patrick said. “That is to say that the support from Harris’ campaign will be a huge boost to my campaign because it will take a lot of work off my plate.”

Regarding District 6, Jackson said it is historically conservative, but that does not mean it is not worth trying to convert voters.

“Now is the time to turn the tide. With a good message and the number of voters, anything can happen,” he said.

What is the state of the local GOP?

Before the primaries, deep divisions emerged within the Republican Party in Ottawa County.

Several unorthodox moves by the Conservatives, including an unprecedented endorsement rally by the local OI-controlled GOP, which in turn prompted the traditional Republican group Conservative Ottawa to announce its own endorsement. This prompted the county GOP to “condemn and denounce” Conservative Ottawa’s activities and demand that these candidates drop out of their campaigns – which was rejected.

It now remains to be seen whether the Conservatives can reunite after months of bitter power struggles, but some remain hopeful.

“I really try to be optimistic because I firmly believe that given the dynamics of this election, the Ottawa County Republican Party is doing its best to reunite the Ottawa County Republican Party and get it back to where it was,” Matwiejczyk said.