Cindy Gamrat (; born June 15, 1973) is a former Republican member of the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2020 ...

, representing the 80th district. She was first elected in 2014, after playing a leading role in organizing the

Tea Party movement The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2007, catapulted into the mainstream by Congressman Ron Paul's presidential campaign. The movement expanded in resp ...

in Michigan. She engaged in an

extramarital affair An affair is a relationship typically between two people, one or both of whom are either married or in a long-term monogamous or emotionally-exclusive relationship with someone else. The affair can be solely sexual, solely physical or solely em ...

with fellow Representative Todd Courser, and was expelled from the House in September 2015 for using taxpayer resources in an attempt to cover up the affair.

Political career

Tea Party organizing activity

Gamrat became a Tea Party organizer after moving to Michigan in 2010. Shortly after moving, she founded ''Plainwell Patriots Tea Party'' and in 2011 founded ''Michigan 4 Conservative Senate''. In 2011, Gamrat was leader of the ''Plainwell Patriots Tea Party'' which hosted a United States Senate candidate forum on November 22 of that year. The event featured Cornerstone Schools executive

Clark Durant Wiliam Clark Durant III (born May 13, 1949) is an American businessman who is the co-founder and former CEO of the Cornerstone Schools, a group of charter and independent schools in the inner city of Detroit. Durant was a Republican politician ...

, former Kent County Judge Randy Hekman, libertarian activist

Scotty Boman Scott Avery Boman (born April 14, 1962) * Edited by WDIV Staff http://clickondetroit.com (website). is an American Libertarian politician from Michigan. He has consistently earned among the top votes of any third-party candidate in every Michiga ...

of Detroit,

Gary Glenn Gary Richard Glenn (June 16, 1958 – July 27, 2023) was an American politician and activist who was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives for the state's 98th district, from 2015 to 2018, as a Republican. He campaigned to prohibi ...

of Midland, president of the ''American Family Association of Michigan'', and Roscommon businessman Peter Konetchy. ''Michigan 4 Conservative Senate'', also founded by Gamrat, was patterned after successful efforts by Indiana tea party groups that rallied behind

Richard Mourdock Richard Earl Mourdock (born October 8, 1951) is an American politician who served as treasurer of the state of Indiana from 2007 to 2014. Running with the support of the Tea Party movement, he defeated six-term incumbent U.S. Senator Richard L ...

as the tea party challenger to Republican U.S. Sen.

Richard Lugar Richard Green Lugar ( ; April 4, 1932 – April 28, 2019) was an American politician who served as a United States Senate, United States Senator from Indiana from 1977 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republ ...

. In Michigan, she organized more than 50 tea party groups, under the name ''Michigan 4 Conservative Senate (MI4CS)'', to try to avoid dispersing tea party clout in a field crowded with conservatives. In addition to coordinating forums by tea party groups around the state, ''MI4CS'' organized a candidate forum at

Central Michigan University Central Michigan University (CMU) is a Public university, public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1892 as a private normal school and became a state institution in 1895. CMU is one of the eigh ...

in Mount Pleasant Michigan on January 14, 2012. The forum preceded a convention of Michigan tea party groups that would decide which of the participating candidates they would support. Clark Durant, Randy Hekman, Scotty Boman, Chuck Marino and Gary Glenn participated, while Peter Konetchy, Rick Wilson, and former Congressman

Pete Hoekstra Cornelis Piet Hoekstra (; born October 30, 1953) is a Dutch-American politician who is serving as Ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra had served as the United States Ambassador to the Netherlands from January 10, 2018, to January 17, 2021. A member ...

chose not to.

Michigan House of Representatives

With

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

Bob Genetski unable to run for reelection due to

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, w ...

s, Gamrat ran for election to the

for the 80th district in the 2014 elections on a platform focused on leadership and self-described "family values", while identifying as part of the

Tea Party Movement The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2007, catapulted into the mainstream by Congressman Ron Paul's presidential campaign. The movement expanded in resp ...

. Gamrat defeated Geoff Parker of the Democratic Party and Arnis Davidsons of the Libertarian Party in the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

. In April 2015, Gamrat was permanently removed from the Michigan House's Republican Party caucus for violating their confidentiality rules with a

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post. ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'' published audio recordings on August 7, 2015, in which fellow Michigan Representative Todd Courser asked staff to create a rumor that he had sex with a

male prostitute Male prostitution is a form of sex work consisting of the act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment. Although clients can be of any gender, the vast majority are older males looking to fulfill their sexual needs. M ...

in order to distract from the affair he was having with Gamrat.

Kevin Cotter Kevin M. Cotter (born September 26, 1977) is an American politician who represented the 99th District in the Michigan House of Representatives.Speaker Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Speaker" (song), by David ...

of the Michigan House, initiated an investigation into their use of public funds to cover up their affair. She was found guilty of inappropriate behavior and expelled from the Michigan House on September 11, becoming the fourth lawmaker to be expelled from the legislature in Michigan history. Courser resigned before the House could pass a resolution to expel him. Gamrat filed paperwork with the

Allegan County Allegan County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 120,502. The county seat is Allegan. The name was coined by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to sound like a Native American word. All ...

Clerk to become a candidate in the

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to fill her former seat. She received 9% of the vote in the primary election, finishing in third place. Gamrat was charged with two felony counts of official misconduct for her role in the scandal on February 26, 2016, by

Michigan Attorney General The attorney general of the State of Michigan is the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan. The officeholder is elected statewide in the November general election alongside the governor of Michigan, governor, Lieutenant Governor of ...

Bill Schuette William Duncan Schuette ( ; born October 13, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd attorney general of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Senate in 1990 and for Governor of Mi ...

, which comes with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. On June 14, 2016, Lansing District Judge Hugh Clarke Jr. ruled that there is not enough probable cause for Gamrat to face felony misconduct in office charges.

Personal life

Gamrat is a nurse from

Plainwell, Michigan Plainwell is a city in Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,788 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Plainwell is located on M-89 (Michigan highway), M-89 just east of its junctio ...

. She and her ex-husband, Joe, have three children, Paige, Joseph, and Meghan, whom they have homeschooled. Joe was accused of sending Cindy and Courser mysterious text messages during their affair, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing with no charges filed. She filed for divorce on August 3, 2016.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamrat, Cindy 1973 births American nurses American women nurses Living people Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Women state legislators in Michigan People from Plainwell, Michigan Tea Party movement activists Expelled members of the Michigan State Legislature Michigan politicians convicted of crimes 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the Michigan Legislature