The financial investment Dick DeVos made in the 2024 elections are paying off

“My family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party. I have decided to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right.”  Betsy DeVos

The election in Michigan ended with the Republicans regaining control of the State House in Lansing. The Democrats had won a trifecta after the 2022 election, but that will end beginning next year, as the GOP will now control the State House.

In response to the Republicans winning back the Michigan State House, Dick DeVos has shared his thoughts on the outcome of the election and what it means on his website dickdevos.com. 

In a post from November 11th, Dick DeVos wrote an article entitled, Republican House majority means good things for Michigan. What I want to do is provide a little deconstruction of the article and correct some of the misinformation in the DeVos’ post.

One of the most glaring things about the post from Dick DeVos is that he never provides any sources or verification of the claims he makes. For instance, in the 2nd paragraph of the article, DeVos writes about what the Democratic-controlled State Legislation has done: 

They’ve weakened small businesses, driven jobs and population out of the state, and made our neighborhoods less safe. They stripped workers’ rights by repealing Right-to-Work, raised taxes on Michigan families and small businesses amid record inflation, passed California-style energy mandates that increased costs while reducing reliability, handed billions to big corporations, and removed accountability and transparency in our schools, which rewarded their friends in the teacher’s union but hurt our kids.

Those with economic and political power rarely feel the need to substantiate claims they make, since this is one of the perks of being rich and powerful. The point about stripping workers’ rights by repealing the Right-to-Work policy is worth saying something about. If this policy was so anti-worker, then why did 10,000 workers show up to the State Capitol in 2012 to protest against the Right-to-Work policy that Governor Snyder put in place? In addition, it should be mentioned that Dick DeVos and his friends with the West Michigan Policy Forum were the main organization that pushed a Right-to-Work policy for Michigan beginning in 2010, when they brought in Rick Berman to speak at their annual policy conference. Lastly, it is worth noting that the Mackinac Center for Public Policy think tank was also working to craft a Right-to-Work policy for Michigan and one of their main funders has been the DeVos family.

Later in the article DeVos writes: 

My family has called Michigan home our entire lives. We chose the state to build businesses, invest in our community, create jobs and raise our own families — and we want it to succeed. 

First off, states to not succeed or fail, people do. There is no such things as a Michigan economy. There are only economies that are made up of people or entities like businesses. What Dick DeVos really means by wanting Michigan to succeed is that he wants to perpetuate Capitalism and economic policies that promote Capitalism. Capitalism has been very good to people like the DeVos family, which has tons of investments, owns multiple businesses and benefits from publicly funded projects in Grand Rapids. Second, while it is true that Michigan is the home base of the DeVos family, they own houses in other states, specifically in Florida, and have for decades. 

Later in the article DeVos says he talked with Republicans who are, “nurses, business owners, law enforcement professionals and long-time community leaders.” This is not exactly a diverse list of people who live in Michigan, plus it is unlikely that Dick DeVos comes in contact with many working class residents from Michigan. 

Near the end of the article, DeVos then makes this statement, “Electing a Republican majority in the state House is just the first step in getting Michigan back on track.”  What Dick failed to mention is that his family was collectively the single largest contributor to the Republican Party and Republican candidates in the 2024 election, which GRIID documented on November 3rd. In fact, if you can look at how much money Dick DeVos personally contributed to Republican candidates in Michigan in 2024  ($296,175.50) at this link.

Lastly, I want to point out that this is not a partisan issue for me. I have not been very happy with what the Democratic Party has done in the past two years in Michigan, despite having control of the Governor’s office and the State House & Senate. In November of 2022, I wrote a three part series entitled, What Kind of Change Do We really want to see in Michigan, but most of what I included in those articles have not come to fruition.

Editors note: The source of the Betsy DeVos quote at the beginning of this article comes from a 2017 article in Politico. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/betsy-dick-devos-family-amway-michigan-politics-religion-214631/