Whitmer had originally hired Every Action VAN, a voter-contact software platform, to help compile data for a contact tracing project. Contact tracing is a way to identify people who were potentially exposed to individuals who have tested positive for coronavirus. Once identified, these people can be isolated and monitored, ideally stopping further infections.

Every Action has worked with many Democratic candidates in the past. These connections with the Democratic Party led state Republicans to question the dealings with the company.

“In addition to the fact that a partisan company should not be handling a public health crisis, the Michigan Republican Party is extremely concerned with how this data will be used,” Laura Cox, chairwoman for the Michigan Republican Party, told The Detroit News. “The fact that there is now the possibility that it will be utilized for partisan ends is deeply troubling.”

Republican state Rep. Shane Hernandez, chairman of the Michigan House Appropriations Committee, agreed. He wrote Whitmer a letter asking her to reconsider the contract. After the contract was terminated, Hernandez said Whitmer “must answer the question of how this could happen in the first place,” according to the Detroit News.

“I can’t believe this is the only instance where this administration has made questionable decisions about awarding contracts that may be political in nature during this time of unprecedented executive power,” Hernandez told the paper. “The people of Michigan, as well as their elected representatives, have so far been left in the dark about how our governor is making these decisions and that must come to an end.”

Whitmer’s office said that despite Every Action’s connections with the Democratic party, no data collected as part of the coronavirus project would be used for anything else. The office also said that the non-partisan Michigan Non-Profit Association had also used Every Action’s software.

Every Action shares a CEO with NGP VAN, a similar company. However, while NGP VAN proclaims itself as the “leading technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations,” Every Action works with nonprofit organizations, as well as corporations and governments.

Newsweek reached out to the governor’s office for comment, but did not hear back by publication time.

Michigan has one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the U.S., with 32,967 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 2,700 deaths as of April 21, according to the latest figures from the state’s health department.

This infographic, provided by Statista, shows the spread of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of April 21.