Michigan Republicans Meet To Choose New Party Leader

LANSING (AP) - Michigan Republicans are meeting to choose a new chair to lead the party in the 2016 election cycle.

Chairman Bobby Schostak decided not to seek a third term after heading the GOP since 2011.

His likely successor is Republican National Committeewoman Ronna Romney McDaniel. She's favored in a three-person race against Norm Hughes and Kim Shmina at Saturday's Republican convention in Lansing.

The 41-year-old Romney McDaniel lives in the Detroit suburb of Northville. Her uncle is former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Hughes, a veteran party activist who served in the Reagan administration, is an architectural engineer. Shmina is a nurse who lives in St. Clair County.

Republicans had a successful 2014 election and hope to win Michigan in the presidential race for the first time since 1988.