By Elena Durnbaugh
Staff Writer
Posted: April 22, 2024 9:52 AM

In the lead up to the 2022 general election, Josh Schriver, a virtually unknown young conservative, beat out five other Republican primary contenders before breezing through the general election in his solidly Republican district with 64 percent of the vote.

Now, Schriver (R-Oxford) in known nationally for using social media to advocate the Great Replacement Theory, which claims a conspiracy to bring people of color and other faiths to the United States to outnumber white Christians. Now, Schriver (R-Oxford) is known nationally for using social media to advocate the Great Replacement Theory, which claims a conspiracy to bring people of color and other faiths to the United States to outnumber white Christians.

He does not sit on any committees. He's been stripped of his staff and his access to House and House Republican Caucus resources. None of the 33 bills he's introduced, 30 of which belong to a Certificate of Need repeal package on which he is the lone sponsor, have ever received a committee hearing.

Given his political record, the question is, can he win a second term? With the recent endorsement of the Michigan 9th Congressional District Republican Party and incumbency on his side, the answer might be yes, though a challenger has emerged for the Republican nomination.

In a series of interviews, Gongwer spoke with politicians, local officials and Republican operatives about where Schriver came from, how he was elected and whether his conduct in the House will make it more or less likely for him to be reelected. Many spoke on background so they could speak freely.

Schriver did not return messages requesting an interview or comment for this story.

When Schriver appeared on the scene in 2022, almost no one in his district knew where he came from. Not even his opponents.

"When I ran, I did not know who Josh Schriver was," said Mary Berlingieri, who lost to Schriver in the 2022 Republican primary.

Berlingieri had tried to run for office before – the state Senate in a 2021 special election and for Washington Township treasurer in 2020. She took a little over 27 percent of the vote in 2022 to Schriver's 38 percent, but she had considerably more support than Schriver in her native Macomb County.

"Nobody's ever heard of him. They still don't know who he is," she said. "They know him as this 'gone rogue' type and they label him as a crazy, radical, right-wing, off-the-rails elected official."

Schriver came out of nowhere with little experience, professionally or personally, Berlingieri said, and cruised to the general election because he had the biggest and the brightest signs.

And to some degree, Schriver did come out of nowhere, and he came with endorsements.

He graduated from Michigan State University in 2015 with a degree in psychology. For a time, he worked at Donley Elementary School in East Lansing. Prior to serving as state representative, he worked as a kindergarten teacher in Detroit and then as a behavior analyst to support children with autism and their families, according to his biography on the House GOP website.

In 2020, Schriver wasn't even living in his district, as another lawmaker said she recalled knocking on his door while campaigning in another district.

A Republican strategist said he moved the year before the 2022 election so he would be eligible to run for the House seat in the 66th District.

When Schriver set out to run in 2022, he was extremely proactive about reaching out to people, a Republican strategist said. He wasn't particularly bombastic, and he was a fresh, young, Republican face. That played well with a lot of voters and people within the party.

"He was literally the most background, milquetoast guy," a source said. "That doesn't upset anybody."

At the time, Schriver said his motivation for running was that he wanted to see more people his age in political spaces.

"He was essentially – we see this a lot where you have people in their 20s – who think that they are destined to run for office," one source said. "That they are being 'called' to do this."

Campaign finance reports show that he put up more than $40,000 for his own election campaign.

Schriver was also endorsed by several organizations, including Americans for Prosperity, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, ABC of Michigan, the Detroit Regional Chamber PAC, the Michigan Freedom Network, Young Americans for Liberty and Right to Life Michigan. That's a swath of endorsements that typically go to electable Republicans less likely to veer into the fringe like Schriver has done.

That rack of endorsements might have sealed the deal for him, Berlingieri said.

"It's a very hard thing to fight, when you're backed by the PACs," Berlingieri said.

Americans for Prosperity, especially, went to work for Schriver in the primary.

"They were sending out mailers. I kid you not, it was every day for a week straight right before the primary," Berlingieri said. "They sent them here in Washington, Romeo. And I said, 'Who is this guy, Josh? This young guy?' No children. No experience from what I can see on anything. Came out of nowhere."

Americans for Prosperity Michigan said it considers a multitude of factors when choosing to endorse a candidate.

"AFP-MI employs a holistic approach when endorsing candidates, and a number of factors including voting record, leadership, policy priorities, and the landscape of a race all play into that," said a statement from Annie Patnaude, Michigan state director for the organization.

Americans for Prosperity Michigan has not yet announced endorsements for the 2024 cycle.

Many people, including current lawmakers, Republican political strategists and local politicians called Schriver politically naïve and easily led.

One source said Schriver was a blank canvas with energy for the ground game. He was a good communicator but not "an independent thinker."

Schriver was mentored by John Riley, the former state representative that previously held Schriver's seat, Berlingieri and other sources said. Riley is known to be to the right of the political spectrum, even by Republican standards.

"He was not willing to reach across the table," Berlingieri said of Riley. "But sometimes you have to reach across the table, if you are just adamant about, it's your way or nothing, nothing's every going to get done."

Riley did not return phone calls requesting comment.

Schriver, it seems, follows a similar philosophy, and had one of the most conservative voting record, if not the most conservative voting record, in the House last year.

Northern Oakland County is a hotbed of far-right Republicans. That constituency seems to drive Schriver, Berlingieri said.

"He meets with certain individuals, constituents, and he caters to them," Berlingieri said. "I'm not saying he doesn't believe in what he says, he's just very radically right."

Still, the broader scope of his district isn't happy with him, Oxford Township Supervisor Jack Curtis said.

"We all need to fight for what's right. Not just your individual cause. And quite frankly, that's what everybody feels he's doing. 'Look at me, I'm a great Christian. Look at me, I'm a white this. Oh, look at me,'" Curtis said. "We elected you to represent us, and quite frankly, act godly and represent us."

When Governor Gretchen Whitmer entered the House chamber to deliver her State of the State address this year, Schriver handed her a Bible. Whitmer accepted it then handed it off to a Democrat on the other side of the aisle.

The problem isn't that Schriver is religious, Curtis said.

"I am also. I use it to guide my work here in the community," he said. "I work for man and follow God. I don't work for God and follow man."

Schriver seems to be more focused on representing his religion than his district, Curtis said, which is a problem because his district needs help.

Curtis said Oxford needs state support for better mental health care and getting an urgent care center or hospital in town.

"We have resiliency centers that are going to be running out of money through Common Ground, and there are still kids traumatized every day," Curtis said. "The inability of him to work with others has gotten Oxford nothing."

Following the 2021 Oxford High School shooting, the community was united around gun control measures, and that remained true in 2022, polling data showed. But Schriver voted against every piece of gun legislation that has come before the House. There's likely been attrition around that issue since then, a political consultant said, but it will always be a sensitive topic for the community.

"It's really tough when you go out to bat for yourself instead of the whole team," Curtis said. "I wish it was Josh Schriver, District 66, instead of putting Oxford behind his name."

Schriver is not supposed to be a religious leader, Curtis said. He's an elected politician that is supposed to be working with the people in his district to accomplish what they want to get done in their community.

"He's no longer useful to Oxford," Curtis said. "He has no power. The House of Representatives doesn't listen to him. The people on the floor ignore him. We're not getting any representation there anymore that's viable and reputable… We're just sitting here with a lame duck."

The longer Schriver has been in office, the more radical he seems to have become, Curtis said.

"No one knew this dark side of him prior to the election," Curtis said. "Some of the things he's doing in public now, standing on the Capitol lawn, talking about goats and Satan and things like that?"

Schriver has made several posts online about religious freedom protections for the Church of Satan and posted about the yule goat display set up by the Satanic Temple of West Michigan in December.

Then, in February, came the tweets about the great replacement theory – a white nationalist conspiracy theory that holds Jewish elites are conspiring to increase nonwhite populations with the aim of outnumbering Europeans.

Oakland Couty Republicans were displeased to see Schriver's great replacement theory tweets, to put it lightly, with several sources saying it stoked flames of a fire they didn't need.

Some people even encouraged him to hold a press conference to walk back his comments and recenter the conversation around immigration, which Schriver said was supposed to be the point of the tweets from the start.

Schriver never held a press conference, though. The only statement he put out to the press doubled down on the theory, and he continued to endorse his original post on social media.

Elected officials should aim to represent all their constituents, Berlingieri said, and those tweets made him politically toxic.

"Other state reps don't want to work with somebody like that," she said. "And instead of apologizing… he doubled down."

Several Republicans familiar with Schriver said that they believe him when he says that he's not a racist. They do suspect that he's misguided and uninformed.

"He's a young, unexperienced legislator," one source said, speaking on background. "If it's a young person and what they said was an excited exuberance, I can understand it, and we should all be willing to forgive but watch the person's actions in the future."

But, if Schriver believes what he said now that he has the context, Republicans shouldn't support him, sources said.

Schriver is not a racist, said Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers).

"I know him well, and I think I know how he thinks," he said. "He's not a racist, and the Democrats made him out to be one. … You can see how often he voted against the Democrat speaker … and so I think the people of his district are very fortunate to have somebody who's adhered to the values he says he stands for."

Carra said it was better for a representative to stand on principle than to go along to get along.

"Representative Schriver has a mindset very similar to mine, where I want to keep more money in the pockets of the people from my district. I want them to get to decide what they want to do with their money, not compel them to give it to government run projects, which are oftentimes in other parts of the state," Carra said. "The viability of the Republican Party moving forward is to make the Democrats own that central planning scheme of corruption exclusively and to stand up for free markets, equal opportunity, less rules, regulations, fines and fees and a marketplace that works for everybody."

Principles don't mean much to a district that's hurting, though, Curtis said.

"I don't even pay attention to him anymore," he said. "He asked if I would go on a video with him, and I don't want anything to do with the guy. He's shunned in the House. What are you going to do? Just drag me down with you? No way. I still have friends, and we still have some influence up there."

Schriver does have a primary challenger.

Randy Levasseur of Oxford filed last month to run against Schriver in the primary, but he – and anyone else who may decide to run against him – is likely to face an uphill battle, a Republican strategist said.

That's not something Levasseur is worried about, though.

"It's an insiders' game," he said. "There's been concerns in the community that they simply don't have representation in Lansing – that Josh is more focused on national issues and getting out his zinger tweets and less on actually serving the constituents. He's got a terrible reputation for responding to concerns that individual constituents raise to him. He's known for not working well with local governments to address their concerns, and so there's a gap in representation."

Levasseur, who has political experience serving on the Royal Oak City Council for two terms, said he felt like he would be better capable of handling the constituent work of the job while maintaining a conservative voting record.

"Conservatives are about merit. They're about viewing people for what they bring to the table as individuals. It's not about identity politics, which is what Josh is introducing into the equation when he posts some of those tweets or on other issues," Levasseur said.

Levasseur highlighted some of Schriver's votes against setting a minimum age of 18 for marriage and laws prohibiting marital rape.

"There's something that you can have 90 percent of conservatives voting for something, and Josh is part of that 10 percent that votes against it," Levasseur said. "He's not supporting other conservatives, and he's not taking into consideration their perspective when he votes."

Schriver seems to have been co-opted by the more extremist branches of the party, falling in line with the controversial MIGOP 9th District and those who are aligned with Kristina Karamo. The group is particularly influential in the 66th District, and Schriver got a standing ovation when his name was mentioned at the North Oakland Republican Party Convention.

"There is a small group of people that defend him and support him – looking at him as a fighter not wanting to give up," Berlingieri said.

If more than one person tries to primary him, it's likely they may split the vote, which would give Schriver an easy path to the general.

"Josh will be able to play the witch hunt card very well," one source said. "We've seen President Trump be able to do it. He'll be able to say the Democratic majority is taking away all my rights and responsibilities."

Further, in a presidential election year, breaking through the noise for a down ballot race is a tall order.

"To break through that noise, you've got to say absolutely bonkers crap," one source said.

Still, the opposition is real.

"If I'm the Oxford Township supervisor or any elected official or constituent in Oxford, I'd be pretty pissed that my elected representative literally has no pull in a time when you really need it," a Republican strategist said.

Berlingieri said she hoped that people would question who they're voting for in the primary.

"When people are casting votes, it's really important they know who they're voting for," she said. "The immaturity has really been exposed. I would assume that you would see more of this type of behavior from him."

Schriver also doesn't have the same political protection as some of the other extremely conservative members of the House, a Republican strategist said. Although he typically votes with them, he sits outside the Trump Republicans and the House Freedom Caucus. He's not sent to meet with Trump when he comes to town, and he doesn't pop up on the MAGA radar.

"I really think Josh is just doing his own thing," a strategist said. "He doesn't have the protection of the more organized Trump wing of the party or the Michigan Conservative Coalition … Schriver's out in the wind."

Schriver's biggest asset is his incumbency. Republicans need the seat in the House, so it's unlikely that the party will say much against him. The overwhelmingly Republican nature of the seat means even someone like Schriver who has alienated some of his fellow Republicans would still be heavily favored to hold the district against the Democrat in November.

Additionally, politics has yet to disincentivize inflammatory and controversial figures, a Republican strategist said. That can be seen at the state level, with people like Schriver, and at the national level with former President Donald Trump.

"I'm very concerned about where we are four years down the line? Where are we in November should Trump lose? Or should he win?" the source said. "People are not rational anymore."