The Livingston County Republican Party has a new leader, although it’s a name well known to supporters and opponents alike.
Jennifer Smith, who has headed up the Livingston County chapter of Moms for Liberty, was elected as Chair of the Livingston County GOP on Wednesday night.
Smith, who is an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, had made headlines throughout the pandemic for her contentious advocacy against masks and vaccines.
In November of 2021, Smith threatened members of the Brighton Area Schools Board of Education during a discussion over mask usage and quarantining students.
“We’re coming for you,” said Smith. “Take it as a threat. Call the FBI. I don’t care. You’re all either going to be recalled or we’re all coming for you. That’s what’s happening.”
The Facebook page for the group that she administered was also restricted at one point for making false and misleading statements.
Some of the misinformation that the group posted on the page included statements such as “there is no such thing as a COVID virus,” “Vaxxed people are the cause of it,” (referring to the spread of the disease) or that the COVID vaccines are “poison.”
Smith was also involved in filing complaints in December of 2021 in Livingston County Circuit Court against Brighton Area Schools Board of Education President Roger Myers, Vice President Alicia Reid, Treasurer Angela Krebs and Trustee Laura Mitchell seeking an injunction to halt the activities of the Health, HR and Policy Committee, alleging they were in violation of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act by not being open to the public while developing policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
However, she later filed to dismiss the lawsuits after the district requested the plaintiffs produce all emails or other communications with Trustees John Conely and Bill Trombley, who at the time were the subjects of proposed recall petitions and were believed to be coordinating efforts with the group against the district.
Conely is a member of the Livingston County GOP’s Executive Committee.
BAS Board President Roger Myers told GIGO News at the time that the plaintiffs filed their complaints as a form of judicial harassment and knew they were frivolous from the outset, as confirmed by the fact that they sought a dismissal of their own complaints, which he called “extremely rare.”
Meanwhile, screenshots of her TikTok page show her using the acronym “WWG1WGA” which stands for Where we go one we go all,” which the Anti-Defamation League says is “the most common term/hashtag in Q circles.”
Smith succeeds Meghan Reckling, who had served as Chair since January of 2019. Reckling, who lost a bid for County Commission in the August primary, serves as the Chief of Staff for state Senator Lana Theis.
Also elected was Sean Carleton as Vice-Chair, LuAnn Etcher as Secretary and James Dettling, as Treasurer.
