In a remarkable rebuke, a trio of Republican state lawmakers from Michigan's Upper Peninsula publicly rescinded their support for the five-term GOP congressman who represents northern Michigan and the U.P., calling him a "liar" and suggesting he's been absent and "disconnected" from his district.

A long-time state lawmaker, Sen. Ed McBroom, said he'd never vote for U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman again and suggested the congressman from Watersmeet has a history of endorsing the candidates who hire his chief of staff's consulting services as a way to "help his employee's personal business."

State Reps. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock, and Karl Bohnak, R-Deerton, also rescinded their endorsements of Bergman on Tuesday, to which a Bergman spokesman said the congressman "takes his orders from the constituents of the First District" in Michigan and not some "establishment Lansing hacks."

"We look forward to winning again and beating the do-nothing establishment hacks," Bergman spokesman James Hogge said.

The clash was set off by Bergman's endorsement last week of former state Rep. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, over Rep. Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River, for a state Senate seat that's up for grabs because McBroom is term-limited and cannot run again.

"At a time when too many elected officials backstab, cave to pressure, or say whatever is convenient, Beau has shown that he has the integrity the 38th District needs," Bergman said in endorsing LaFave.

McBroom claimed Bergman promised him twice that he wouldn't get involved in the GOP primary contest, though a Bergman spokesman disputed that the congressman ever made such a promise.

"I wish I could say I'm surprised that he lied to me or that this is out of character for my time working with Jack, but it's not," McBroom said in a blistering Tuesday statement.

"I've seen him be disloyal to local party members, interfere in races outside his district, stab fellow Republicans in the back, and even publicly attack me. ... This time, he straight up lied to me. Now, he's siding against the clear, best option for the U.P. I will not stand by silently as he undermines the work we have done for the U.P."

In an interview, McBroom said the LaFave endorsement was bad enough. But during the UP 200 Sled Dog Race over the weekend, McBroom claimed Bergman and his team were "trashing" the three state lawmakers and calling Prestin a "wife beater" in reference to his guilty plea to domestic battery against his then-fiancé in 1994.

"They're on Facebook, questioning our integrity and, you know, if he's going to declare a war, our two options are either lie down and play dead or fight for ourselves. And we decided that it was appropriate to fight for ourselves," McBroom told The Detroit News.

"He clearly doesn't want the endorsement he asked us for last summer. Why would he want endorsements of people he thinks are so terrible? So the right thing to do is to take our endorsement back."

Markkanen said Bergman's endorsement of LaFave "reinforces" concerns about Bergman being an absentee congressman who was criticized when he first ran in 2016 for being widely unknown in the region and living mostly at his home in Louisiana.

McBroom said that's been a common gripe from his constituents for the last 10 years, "and I never heard people make that gripe about Bart Stupak or Dan Benishek" ― a reference to Bergman's predecessors.

Bergman never contacted Markkanen or the other two lawmakers to understand why they are backing Prestin, whose policy knowledge on U.P. issues is superior, Bohnak said.

"We need a congressman who listens to the people who live here and understands what's at stake," Markkanen said in a statement. "Not someone who drops in for carefully staged public appearances."

LaFave blasted McBroom and Markkanen on Tuesday, claiming the latter fired him as a staffer in October after he refused to endorse Prestin.

LaFave, who served in the Legislature from 2017 to 2022, volunteered for McBroom's campaigns as a teenager, he said, prior to the senator "backstabbing" him.

"I gave 12+ years of my young adult life supporting Ed McBroom and the UP legislative team in Lansing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough for them," LaFave said in a statement.

"I was fired by Greg Markkanen for not endorsing their favorite candidate: a former Chicago Nightclub owner who pled guilty to domestic battery after beating his wife for years. Beating women wasn’t exactly the 'U.P. Values' I had assumed Ed and Greg were taking about. The choice between my opponent and I has never been more clear."

Bergman's team suggested that the rift among the lawmakers goes back to Bergman's defeat in 2016 of the late state Sen. Tom Casperson, who was supported by McBroom at the time, to represent the U.P. in Congress.

"It’s sad that this group will come together for a meaningless press release but not to support one of their own they used to employ and champion ― simply because they cannot control him," Hogge said of LaFave.

"Lame duck Ed McBroom has been in office since 2011. While Ed raised gas taxes, did nothing on electricity rates, and fought against President Trump ― he wants to blame the problems the UP faces on General Bergman winning a primary in 2016 against the candidate Ed supported," Hogge added."Beau LaFave, Jack Bergman, and Donald Trump all won their primaries in 2016 with these same establishment Lansing hacks working against them ― and with the President’s full support ..."

McBroom chaired a committee that authored a report for the Republican-controlled Senate in 2021 that found no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election in Michigan, which Trump lost.

Bergman posted to Facebook on Tuesday that, "the same do-nothing, anti-Trump political insiders who’ve fought me since 2016 are now publicly admitting they are still mad I beat their guy ten years ago."

McBroom said that he tried repeatedly over the years to work with Bergman and bury the hatchet to move on from "perceived or genuine" insults and problems that they had over the years.

"If he wants to write this off as being long-term bad blood, then go ahead. But what's the answer to that then? I mean, we were not doing anything until he suddenly started calling us backstabbers and having his staff question our integrity this weekend," McBroom said.

"I've seen friends who can run campaigns against each other and keep it friendly and above board. And Jack's the one who's decided that suddenly it needs to be down in the gutter and to start trashing people in order to get his guy across the finish line."

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