The Republican National Committee must intervene to help stabilize the Michigan Republican Party, which is heading into the presidential campaign season financially broke and wracked by internal feuds.

The state GOP has all but disappeared under the leadership of Chair Kristina Karamo. The Detroit News reported a draft report from a group opposed to Karamo’s leadership found the state GOP’s main fundraising account had just $315,000 in it as of Nov. 30.

The party also owes about $509,000 on its longstanding line of credit with Comerica Bank, along with $110,000 for a speaker at the Mackinac Leadership Conference in September.

With three weeks until the beginning of 2024 — a pivotal election year — the state’s GOP is essentially bankrupt. Karamo raised just $186,000 from March through October of this year, according to the document. By comparison, the party raised $1.3 million during the same period in 2021 under former chairman Ron Weiser.

In further proof of the party’s desperate condition, The Detroit News reported exclusively Karamo filed suit against the former chairs who control the trust that owns its Lansing headquarters. She wants to sell the building to settle the current debt.

RNC staffers are reportedly coming to Michigan this week to meet with GOP donors and assess the situation.

Meanwhile, 39 members of the state executive committee have scheduled a meeting Dec. 27 to consider unseating Karamo. That move would require 75% of the state committee, which has about 100 members. Or with two-thirds of the committee it could change the bylaws to lower the threshold.

If the dissidents are successful in dumping Karamo, the challenge will be finding a successor who can appeal to both the Trump-sotted grassroots and the traditional donor base.

Former Congressman Pete Hoekstra of Grand Rapids says he’d take the job under the right circumstances. He’d be the perfect choice.

If Karamo can be replaced, the next steps will be up to the RNC. The national committee must recognize the new chair as the official Republican leader in Michigan and make sure he or she is credentialed by the RNC as the official representative of Michigan.

The new chair will need help rebuilding a fundraising structure and crafting a plan for managing the debt. The revamped state party will need considerable assistance from the RNC in paying for its presidential nominating caucuses in March, as well as in organizing the vote.

How much direct financial aid the national party can give is uncertain. It has had fundraising struggles of its own due to former President Donald Trump siphoning off a large number of donors to fund his campaign.

Because of the disarray in Michigan, the RNC has not placed a state director or field staff here to assist in its national efforts, as it typically would.

RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel still lives in Michigan and must be aware of the state of emergency in the Michigan Republican Party. She also knows the critical role this state will play in next year’s presidential race and the battle for control of Congress.

The RNC must take an active role in reestablishing political order in a state vital to its 2024 ambitions.