For several election cycles, the Michigan Republican Party has been broken. Issues like backroom deals, dishonest leadership, zero concern for election integrity, lack of transparency, inability to win key elections, decisions made on behalf of the party directed by special interests and large donors, an unwillingness to listen to grassroots members (many of whom do the lion’s share of work behind the scenes to support events and candidates), are all issues that most delegates agree need to be fixed. As a MI GOP delegate and long-time activist in the party, I tend to agree with all, or at least most, of these frequently voiced concerns.
In 2023, The Michigan Republican Party had a huge financial setback after what many believe was an honest but failed attempt by the newly elected GOP chair, election integrity activist Kristina Karamo, to burn down the party and start from scratch. Karamo failed when she attempted to hand the MI GOP over exclusively to the grassroots faction of the party while publicly chastising top donors and ignoring everyone in between. Karamo’s take-no-prisoners style was like a breath of fresh air for the under-appreciated, hardworking grassroots activists. Still, her one-sided approach angered moderates and RINOs alike. Her frequent criticisms of the people writing the checks for over a decade to keep the party solvent caused them to withdraw their financial support, leaving the party essentially broke and unable to operate effectively.
In less than one year after Karamo was elected, leaders in the MI Republican Party were asked to cast their vote to remove Karamo over their lack of confidence in her ability to effectively lead the party and replace her with former Trump Ambassador and US House Intelligence Chair Pete Hoekstra. In a close vote, Karamo was removed by party leaders. Shortly afterward, Trump-endorsed opponent, Ambassador Hoekstra, was chosen to lead the party. After a lengthy court battle and the RNC’s official decision to recognize Hoekstra as chair of the party, Pete Hoekstra got to work, using his contacts to fundraise for the upcoming November 2024 election.
While many criticized the current MI GOP Chair, Pete Hoekstra, for his lack of interest in election integrity, their criticisms are unfounded. MI GOP lawyer Mike Bishop did something no lawyer working for the state party had done before: He took the issue of voter fraud seriously. He was instrumental in working with the RNC to bring attention to the dangerous UOCAVA scheme through litigation against MI SOS Benson in the final weeks before the election and also supported their decision to sue Jocelyn Benson for having more voters on Michigan’s voter rolls than number of eligible voters in the state.
In November, after multiple rallies and events in the state, Donald J. Trump won Michigan under the leadership of Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra.
On February 20, MI GOP delegates will be asked to, once again, choose their next chairperson by voting at their state convention. In full disclosure, I am an MI GOP delegate, but I will not be casting a vote for chair this year.
Four candidates will be running for the MI GOP Chair position. The Gateway Pundit has looked at all four candidates, and after carefully vetting each of them, we have chosen to endorse the former MI GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock. We believe she has the best chance of rebuilding the party, raising essential funds, helping strong Republican candidates win key races, skillfully handling the hostile media, and building bridges between a variety of factions within the Republican Party to create a more unified and strong party as we look forward to the 2026 mid-term elections.
Watch this video to see why we’ve chosen to endorse Meshawn Maddock:
MASTERCLASS:
MI GOP Chair candidate @MeshawnMaddock clears the deck as she goes down the line, disqualifying each of her opponentsShe’s earned the endorsement of @gatewaypundit w/her bold leadership, conservative activism & bravery in the face of serious threats from the… pic.twitter.com/WU7tSUaNjF
— PattyMI (@PattyLovesTruth) January 30, 2025
Meshawn Maddock is a well-known Republican Party activist who’s been in the fight for conservative principles and values for well over a decade. She has also been one of President Trump’s most important supporters and organizers in the state. Despite heavy criticism by some, Meshawn has always remained loyal to President Trump and supported his endorsements of candidates. The outspoken wife of MI State Rep. Matt Maddock, named Michigan’s most conservative lawmaker in 2024 by MIRS, is known for being strong-willed and has a mind of her own, yet she has always been willing to listen and engage in civil discourse with people who hold different viewpoints within the party.
Billionaire Republican Ron Weiser asked Maddock to run as his MI GOP co-chair in 2021. Together, the unusual pairing of a billionaire businessman and a stay-at-home mom and conservative activist earned 66% of the vote at the MI GOP State Convention. Maddock’s work as Weiser’s co-chair gave her unique insight into how the party works. On day one, Meshawn will be able to get to work with a firsthand understanding of how the party works. Maddock knows what is expected of a party chair and understands what needs to be improved upon. In the area of communications, we believe Maddock will excel, as she has already proven she knows how to work with party members, party leadership, and state lawmakers, and, most importantly, she knows how to deal with an increasingly hostile media.
Meshawn has been instrumental in helping her husband campaign and win his elections. She understands how to navigate the complexities of campaigns in toss-up districts and the critical importance of fundraising. Her inside knowledge of how elections are won is invaluable and should benefit her greatly as the next MI GOP chair and will be especially important in the upcoming mid-term election.
Maddock’s support for President Trump has been battle-tested. As one of the 16 Trump electors who signed an alternate slate of electoral votes for President Trump in 2020, Meshawn has bravely fought back against Michigan’s lawless Attorney General Dana Nessel, who falsely charged each of the electors with eight felonies. Instead of shrinking in fear over the lawfare used to silence her and keep her from making waves in the Republican Party, Meshawn fought back and doubled down, as she became an elector again in 2024. She and MI GOP Grassroots Vice Chair Marian Sheridan have become examples of courage under fire as they both proudly cast their electoral votes for President Trump’s second term.
We believe Meshawn’s personal friendship with President Trump over the years, including regular phone conversations with the President, would give the Michigan Republican Party a unique advantage by having a chair with a direct line to the White House.
Senator Jim Runestad – From 2014 – 2018, Jim Runestad served as a MI State Representative. In 2018, he was elected as a state senator. Senator Runestad won his bid for re-election in 2022 and has two more years remaining in his term as a full-time MI State Senator. Senator Runestad has been a reliable conservative vote for the citizens of Michigan. He is approachable and puts the needs of his constituents over a desire to be liked in Lansing. Unlike most senators in Lansing, he is passionate about election integrity and fixing Michigan’s broken elections.
We at The Gateway Pundit appreciate Jim Runestad’s commitment to election integrity, and it is our sincere hope that Senator Runestad will consider running for Michigan Secretary of State when his term is completed as Michigan Senator in 2026. Senator Runestad would be a formidable opponent and a stalwart, reliable advocate for cleaning Michigan’s dirty voter rolls and making elections trustworthy and transparent. At this time, we cannot endorse Senator Runestad, as we feel it is in the best interest of his constituents to have a full-time Senator working on their behalf. We also believe the MI Republican Party deserves a full-time chair solely focused on rebuilding the party. A full-time chair will be especially important as we enter the 2026 mid-term election cycle.
Scott Greenlee – Scott Greenlee owns Greenlee Consulting, a political consulting firm. He has been involved in the Republican Party for several decades. While he has attended several events and is well-liked by those who know him, he has been absent when it comes to the fight for election integrity, an issue most party members agree is a top priority. Greenlee also understands how to help candidates win races, which could be a huge advantage. Greenlee appears to be lacking in his commitment to addressing the serious issue of election integrity in Michigan. On the surface, it may appear that Greenlee’s co-chair Jessica Barefield, whose profile on Facebook says she is the Regional Election Integrity Director at the MI Republican Party, could fill that void. The problem is the Gateway Pundit, who frequently works with Michigan’s top election integrity experts and has been at the forefront of the state’s most crucial election fraud investigations, has never heard of her.
While his fundraising and campaign experience make him a strong choice for chair, Greenlee falls short in his relationships with grassroots activists and his record of defending election integrity in a state where the Republican Party cannot survive without free and fair elections.
Joe Cella – Joe Cella is the founder and co-founder of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and Catholic Vote. Up until three months ago, most Republicans in the state of Michigan had never heard of him and wondered why he was running to become the next chair of the party. To his credit, Cella was reportedly involved in helping to stop the Chinese battery plant, Gotion, from being built in rural Mecosta County, but to date, outside of working for the former Republican Senator Spencer Abraham and a staff member for former US Rep Thaddeus McCotter, Mr. Cella has never been a MI GOP delegate or involved in state party politics. We also couldn’t find any evidence of Joe Cella’s involvement in election integrity efforts in Michigan.
And what about Mr. Cella’s anti-Trump background? He claims to have had a change of heart about President Trump, but should his efforts to destroy President Trump while he ran in 2016 disqualify him?
In March 2016, Mr. Cella was one of several Catholic leaders to sign onto an open letter that claimed President Trump was “manifestly unfit to be president of the United States.
From the National Review article:
Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to be president of the United States. His campaign has already driven our politics down to new levels of vulgarity. His appeals to racial and ethnic fears and prejudice are offensive to any genuinely Catholic sensibility. He promised to order U.S. military personnel to torture terrorist suspects and to kill terrorists’ families — actions condemned by the Church and policies that would bring shame upon our country. And nothing in his campaign or his previous record gives us grounds for confidence that he genuinely shares our commitments to the right to life, to religious freedom and the rights of conscience, to rebuilding the marriage culture, or to subsidiarity and the principle of limited constitutional government.
We understand that many good people, including Catholics, have been attracted to the Trump campaign because the candidate speaks to issues of legitimate and genuine concern: wage stagnation, grossly incompetent governance, profligate governmental spending, the breakdown of immigration law, inept foreign policy, stifling “political correctness” — for starters. There are many reasons to be concerned about the future of our country and to be angry at political leaders and other elites. We urge our fellow Catholics and all our fellow citizens to consider, however, that there are candidates for the Republican nomination who are far more likely than Mr. Trump to address these concerns and who do not exhibit his vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and — we do not hesitate to use the word — demagoguery.
Somehow, even after doing everything he could to prevent President Trump from becoming our 45th President, Mr. Cella became an ambassador to Fiji and surrounding islands in 2019 but resigned in January 2021. Insiders say Mike Pence was instrumental in helping him receive the 13-month position during Trump’s first term. We cannot support Mr. Cella’s bid for MI GOP chair based on his anti-Trump history and lack of track record working with the state party.
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