Trump endorses Meshawn Maddock to be Michigan GOP chair

Craig Mauger, The Detroit News on Feb 20, 2025

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President Donald Trump endorsed Meshawn Maddock, one of his outspoken allies in Michigan, on Thursday to be the next chairwoman of the state Republican Party.

A former co-chairwoman of the Michigan GOP, Maddock is in a three-candidate race to lead the party. Republican delegates will pick the next chair during a state convention Saturday inside Huntington Place in Detroit.

Maddock is one of 15 Michigan Republicans currently facing felony charges for signing a certificate that falsely claimed Trump won the state's 2020 presidential election. She has pleaded not guilty and said the charges represented a political witch hunt. Trump's campaign later used the false certificates in an unsuccessful bid to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

"Meshawn will be fantastic for the MAGA movement, and I look forward to working with her to make Michigan, and America, great again," Trump wrote on the platform Truth Social. "Meshawn Maddock has my complete and total endorsement — SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!"

Maddock, a longtime conservative activist, is the wife of state Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, and she served as co-chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party while businessman Ron Weiser was the chairman for the 2022 election cycle.

She's running against Joseph Cella, who was ambassador to Fiji during Trump's first term, and state Sen. Jim Runestad of White Lake to be the Michigan Republican Party's next chairwoman.

Trump won the presidential race in Michigan in 2024 by less than 2 percentage points over Democrat Kamala Harris and is heavily influential among state Republicans. However, before the 2023 GOP convention, Trump endorsed former attorney general candidate Matt DePerno to be the party's chairman and DePerno still lost the chair race to former secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo.

In an interview on Thursday, Meshawn Maddock told The Detroit News she thought she would win Saturday's convention vote with or without Trump's endorsement.

"Delegates in Michigan don’t like being told what to do on anything," Maddock added.

Maddock has said she will use her relationship with Trump to benefit Republicans in the 2026 election, in which Michigan voters will elect a new U.S. senator and a new governor.

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