Republican Chair Race : Former Reagan Aide Norm Hughes Jumps Into Race

Norm Hughes with Ronald & Nancy Reagan circa 1980s

Norm Hughes who was a former aid to Ronald Reagan and was an architect of Michigan's Right To Work initiative,  and is currently the President of MiCPAC, Mi. Conservative Union, and is involved with many other Conservative efforts has decided to run for Michigan Republican Chairman.   He is joined by Marian Sheridan, Lakes Area TEA Party leader and Vice President of the Greater West Bloomfield Republican club and former board member of the old 9th Congressional District Republican Committee. 

Marian Sheridan

Norm is a professional architectural engineer and long-time conservative leader in Michigan going back to the 1960s, Norm Hughes held three positions in the Ronald Reagan administration and is co-author of Michigan’s landmark Tax Limitation Amendment. Many encouraged Norm to run for chair in 2013 but he choose to back Todd Courser at that time.  It was Norm's leadership that almost gave Todd the Chairmanship over Bobby Schostak

Below is the text of the radio introduction Jay Macknally did on Norm on his radio show in March of 2012

Norm Hughes is a 1969 graduate of Architecture at Lawrence Technological University where he was class president three years and student government president his senior year. He took 50 additional hours in engineering. Mr. Hughes also studied at University of Detroit Law School, University of Michigan graduate school of engineering, and continuing education studies at Eastern Michigan University and University of Wisconsin, and has taught graduate architecture students at Lawrence Tech. He has won several Who’s Who awards in the design and build industries and has had his own design and construction management company for more than 30 years.

 Mr. Hughes has been involved in the conservative movement since 1964. He served as Chair of the Conservative Party of Michigan, Michigan Conservative Union and on the board of the American Conservative Union. Mr. Hughes was Michigan Executive Director of the 1976 Reagan Campaign and was a Reagan Delegate to the National GOP Conventions in 1976 and 1980. In 1984 Mr. Hughes was a presidential elector and was selected to put Reagan’s name into nomination at the meeting of the Electoral College. Mr. Hughes also served as chair of county and district Republican committees and was a Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in 1978 and 1980.

 Mr. Hughes served in the Reagan Administrations as Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; as Senior Policy Advisor and Associate Director designate for Emergency Operations at FEMA; as a Presidentially appointed member of the U.S. Architectural and Barriers Free Compliance Board; and for several years on the White House Speakers Bureau.

 Mr. Hughes is now involved with the North Oakland Tea Party Patriots and is working on a plan to involve tea party activists in bringing about needed changes in our state and local governments. Norm Hughes will share some of his experiences with Ronald Reagan and working within the Federal government, will share lessons from previous conservative movement activities, and will lay out a blue print on how we can move the tea party enthusiasm from protest to action, as we prepare to go from campaigning to governing.

Due to Norm's credibility he immediately joins Ronna Romney McDaniel and Dr. Kimberly Shmina as the leaders in the race.  Two other known candidates at the time of this article are David Wolkinson - former Bentivolio Campaign Manager and former 40th District State Hose Rep Candidate and Joel Poynter- Lake County Republican Chairman.s

Ronna Romney McDaniel announced earlier this afternoon her running mate to will be former two time MSU Trustee candidate Jeff Sakwa.

****UPDATE*****  Joel Poynter is out and is supporting Norm Hughes.

***Update 1/23/15 ***  Dave Wolkinson has dropped out of the race