Though we're at the end of 2023, Michigan political news didn't slow in the year's last full week. This is your guide to Michigan politics. Trump will stay on Michigan's primary ballot A lawsuit seeking to keep former President Donald Trump off the Feb. 27 presidential primary ballot reached the end of the road this week, after the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case. Plaintiffs in the case had argued Trump had violated the insurrection claue of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, due to his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Only Justice Elizabeth Welch dissented in the order, writing that the question of whether a possible presidential candidate is eligible to appear on the ballot due to allegedly violating the Constitution's insurrection clause and whether it was on the judiciary to decide that was "of monumental importance for our system of democratic governance." It's one of just a series of suit that have played out across the U.S. in recent weeks. Trump had been barred from Colorado's ballot just a week earlier, and later this past week Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled him ineligible on the same grounds. At the same time, officials in Oregon and California have denied attempts to block him from the ballot in those states. Legal experts have reportedly said the contrasting decisions will add additional pressure for the matter to be ultimately decided at the federal level by the U.S. Supreme Court. Calls to oust Michigan GOP chair grow inside the party Throughout December there's been a growing chorus of voices within the Michigan Republican Party calling on their embattled chair Kristina Karamo to resign or be removed. Eight of 13 Republican congressional district party chairs asked Karamo to resign in an open letter published Thursday, writing, "please put an end to the chaos in our party." It came just a little more than a week after the party's co-chair announced her support for a meeting where critics hope to force a vote to remove Karamo. Karamo, in return, has cast her critics - some of whom are former supporters - as secret Democrats and looking to undermine Republicans heading into a crucial election year. Warren Carpenter, who's helping to organize an effort to oust Karamo, hopes to have a meeting scheduled in the next week. He's confident they'll have the votes to remove her. "Ultimately, this is this is going to end up in a lawsuit, this is going to end up in litigation," Carpenter predicted. "She won't go away quietly." Redistricting panel fractures after maps are invalidated Michigan's first independent redistricting panel is in chaos after a seismic federal court decision that ordered the commission to redraw 13 state legislative districts. They publicly disagreed Thursday over how to respond to a recent federal court ruling that found a broad swath of state House and Senate districts in metro Detroit violated the Voting Rights Act. More: Redistricting commissioners at odds whether to appeal ruling that tossed Michigan legislative maps Commissioners appeared split over whether to appeal the ruling as deadlines loom, but two commission members in favor of the ruling left the meeting before the panel could vote on the issue, leave them without enough members to conduct business. "They pretty much sabotaged this meeting on purpose. That's my opinion, of course," commissioner Richard Weiss said in the meeting. The commission is coming up on a court-imposed deadline to file a brief about how the districts should be redrawn, and in particular if the commission can be left to revise their work or if it should be left to an outside expert. After a series of departures, three new members will have to be chosen. The deadline to file candidacies for Michigan legislative races is in mid-April, meaning time is short for new districts to be formed. Looking ahead to 2024 In Michigan state government, one dynamic is going to define at least the first few months of the next year: an evenly-divided House, after two Democrats left for other offices in November. As my colleague Ben Orner wrote last week, Democrats and Republicans alike still have long to-do lists of what they'd like to accomplish. "The good news for Democrats is that the speakership stays the same, meaning Democrats still have control over what bills are put up for votes," Ben explains. "The bad news is that anything reaching the governor's desk until those seats are filled in April will need at least one Republican supporter." Legislative leaders have said their priorities include affordable and accessible housing, economic and community development and access to health care and prescription drugs.