Despite unprecedented success on Election Day, the Trumbull County Republican Party will again be looking for a new chairman with the resignation of Mike Bollas.

Bollas said he retired as chairman, a position he held since Aug. 4, 2022, to concentrate on taking care of his elderly stepfather and to help his wife who is preparing for hip surgery.

“I felt I couldn’t keep doing what I wanted with the position,” Bollas said Monday. “I’m proud of my accomplishments.”

Bollas was selected chairman after Kenneth Kline resigned July 17, 2022, six weeks after he was reelected chairman at a chaotic meeting. Between Kline and Bollas, Robert Carr, then the party’s first vice chairman, served as interim chairman.

Jim Dunlap, the current first vice chairman, is now the interim chairman and will serve until the party meets Dec. 3 to select a chairman to fill what is Kline’s unexpired four-year term through June 2026.

With interim chairs, the Republicans will have had five chairs in less than 29 months.

Republicans will assume almost complete control over Trumbull’s executive branch next year after dominating the Nov. 5 county elections. It’s the first time this many Republicans will be in the county’s executive branch in about 90 years.

Even so, the party is plagued by infighting that has essentially left it with elected officers and a splinter group that includes a number of people who won in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

Also, an effort by the party to consider significant changes to its bylaws — including endorsing candidates during primaries and suspending the voting rights of central committee members who don’t pay $25 annual dues — was rejected in February after vocal opposition.

Bollas acknowledged he was unable to bring the party together despite a clean sweep of every position on the Nov. 5 ballot.

“We got most of the candidates we wanted to get in,” Bollas said.

Asked to explain, Bollas said, “I don’t want to get into that. It’s mudslinging.”

Marleah Campbell, party secretary who largely handles the party’s affairs, said she was interested in succeeding Bollas as chair.

“I’ve been asked to run and I’ll be thinking about it,” Campbell said. “We’ll see how it pans out. We want someone who will best lead the party.”

Dunlap said he’s interested in being chair, but if Campbell seeks the position, he would support her.

“Marleah is seriously considering running for chair and if she does I’ll back her 100%,” Dunlap said. “If not her, I would consider it.”

Dunlap said he believes in the Republican cause and it doesn’t matter if he does it as chairman or first vice chairman.

Asked about Bollas, Dunlap said, “Mike didn’t do too bad. He was a good chairman. I had no criticism of him.”

But Dunlap also acknowledged the party’s divide.

“We’re supposed to be on the same page,” he said. “I have respect for almost everyone who puts their neck out there to run for political office. I’m hoping for stability for party leadership.”

Campbell said being chairman was new to Bollas and “he did a good job by allowing the people with knowledge to step up and get things done. He was a very good steward of the funds. In the past year, we accomplished things that Trumbull County Republicans never accomplished before.”

County Commissioner Denny Malloy, a vocal critic of the party’s leadership and a leader in opposition to the proposed bylaws changes, said he thought it was “fantastic” that Bollas resigned.

Bollas’ resignation was effective Nov. 8.

“What’s been lacking in the party has been leadership,” Malloy said. “Mike had no part in recruiting candidates and did nothing as far as strategy or election politics. When it came to the nitty gritty of leading the party, he failed miserably. There was a major fracture of the party with him in place. It was dead weight on top. I was in the trenches representing candidates up and down the ticket. He was a figurehead.”

Bollas was openly critical of Randy Law, a former party chairman who was elected county clerk of courts during the Nov. 5 election, as well as some of the other Republican candidates on the ballot.

Law said of Bollas stepping down, “I don’t have any reaction to him. He was irrelevant. He doesn’t call any shots. He was just a hand puppet for people in the party. He was a frontman for Marleah. Him being gone doesn’t improve or hurt anything. We need a strong leader at the top. Despite that, the candidates won the election with poor leadership.”

Malloy said Bollas was a poor leader and is hopeful his replacement will be better.

When told Campbell is interested in being chair, Malloy said, “If she was chairwoman, it would be the worst thing for the party. She already controls the party. I’d vote for Mike Bollas 10 times out of 10 over Marleah Campbell.”

Campbell said during this past election cycle, the party raised tens of thousands of dollars and helped sweep Democrats out of power in Trumbull County. The county has traditionally been Democratic since 1932 until it voted in 2016 for Republican Donald Trump as president.

Republicans won their first countywide seat in a few decades in 2020 when Niki Frenchko was elected commissioner. In 2022, Malloy and Republican Martha Yoder were elected commissioner and auditor, respectively.

The Nov. 5 election had the entire Republican ticket win every contested race, including two judicial races.

Beginning next year, there will only be two countywide executive branch Democrats — Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and coroner Lawrence D’Amico.