Battle for Control of Michigan GOP Between Activists, Donors — Elites Attempt to Run Another Takeover Attempt from MAGA Grassroots

Sen. Jim Runestad (L), Meshawn Maddock, Amb. Joe Cella (R)

On February 21-22, 2025 at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan’s 3,000 precinct delegates, 83 county chairs, and 13 district chairs will choose the next leader of the Michigan Republican Party.

This battle for Chair will determine the party’s course entering the 2026 election cycle, which will see the term-limits end to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

The position of State Party Chair will also be one of the few statewide Republicans in a so-called “purple” state that hasn’t sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Spence Abraham in 1995, and whose last elected Republican Governor Rick Snyder, left office in 2018, after overseeing the Flint Water Crisis and whose center-left governing style had him take strong anti-conservative positions such as vetoing the legislature’s ‘choose life’ license plates.

The legacy of these competing factions in Michigan Republican politics: on one hand, the establishment versus the grassroots, competition between different donor factions, and on another level, simply a competition between the state’s political consultants, will play out as the next State Chair is chosen.

There are currently three declared candidates right now: current State Senator Jim Runestad and Michigan activist Meshawn Maddock. Maddock was one of the 2020 Trump electors who is being prosecuted by far-left Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Just recently, former Ambassador Joe Cella has also announced he is running for the position.

Another name currently considering running is moderate political consultant Scott Greenlee. Greenlee has been paid by NeverTrumpers and Trump-affiliated candidates alike. Greenlee was supposed to announce his run last week, but that has apparently been indefinitely delayed. Greenlee has announced for several offices like this previously and then backed out at the last moment.

The Michigan donor elites, primarily NeverTrumpers like former Governors Rick Snyder and John Engler, are also attempting to recruit former Ambassador Joe Cella to run.

The elites are worried that Maddock might win with an anticipated endorsement from President Trump.

Maddock helped secure Trump endorsements for nine state representative candidates in the fall of 2021. At the time, the establishment like Betsy DeVos, was still distancing itself from Trump. But by the spring of 2022, when it became obvious that Trump was running again for President and was going to win, those elites began a coordinated smear campaign and organized defamation effort against Maddock and other MAGA grassroots leaders.

Maddock’s race for Chair is being managed by Trump loyalists and people close to the Trump campaign.

Cella’s campaign manager Warren Carpenter was one of those leading that fake news defamation effort, claiming Maddock ‘sold’ endorsements from Trump for a few thousand dollars. Carpenter needs the money, insiders say, due to his personal business being in ruins and marital problems.

Carpenter had been previously running the Greenlee effort, but gave up on Greenlee when asked by Jase Bolger, the gatekeeper to funding from the DeVos family. Scott Hagerstrom, longtime political consultant, is running Runestad’s campaign.

Cella was Ambassador to Fiji from 2019-2021 and is a prominent national Catholic who ran the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, but was also a NeverTrumper who signed onto a 2016 letter declaring Trump unfit to serve.

Cella’s team has been caught editing Wikipedia to remove his many citations to NeverTrump activity. Cella signed onto one letter declaring Trump “manifestly unfit to be President of the United States.” Cella’s detractors have said he’s a globalist who was on the wrong side of COVID lockdowns, urging the government to spend more and more funds to fight the Wuhan Virus.

Cella may be relatively unknown to the precinct delegates and district leaders who will choose the next Michigan State Party Chair.

Warren Carpenter is running Cella’s campaign for Chair. Carpenter, working with former Governor Rick Snyder, is hoping to have control over the party. Most of that power helps steer major donor money to preferred federal candidates running for U.S. Senate and Congress, and thereby helps pick who gets support to become Congressmen and Senators.

Snyder was not only the head of Republicans for Joe Biden in 2020, he also publicly supported Kamala Harris in 2024.

The position has been contentious because of the long history of Republican elite donors using the position to ostracize and suppress the conservative grassroots. This all came to a head when long-time RINO family Laura and Mike Cox were in control during the 2020 election. Not only did Laura Cox refuse to support any election integrity efforts, she sent the Republican National Committee lawyers home early when they were trying to investigate voter fraud claims in November 2020. Cox also allegedly wasted a great deal of Rudy Giuliani’s time prior to his pivotal testimony before the Michigan House of Representatives about voter fraud claims, ensuring Giuliani was not fully prepared for the presentation.

Cox has testified against other 2020 Trump electors and has said that she always believed the election was completely and fully fair. Then-Republican State Chair Cox fully supported Joe Biden’s supposed victory in the 2020 election.

After Cox lost to billionaire and former Ambassador Ron Weiser, they added Meshawn Maddock as a Co-Chair to the state party. Weiser worked closely with state consultant John Yob for his two years as Chair, hiring staff almost exclusively from Yob’s networks.

By 2022, MAGA grassroots were sufficiently angry at the lack of election integrity efforts by the State Party to elect Kristina Karamo as the State Chair. Karamo’s election was fought by the donor establishment at every turn. Even though Karamo and her team promised election integrity efforts and a grassroots-oriented effort, it was instead constantly pulled into court by warring factions. Karamo was eventually ruled as no longer State Party Chair in a contested meeting that saw Pete Hoekstra, former Congressman and House Intelligence Chair, made her replacement.

Hoekstra is the current Michigan Republican Party Chair and oversaw the 2024 election efforts by State Party which saw Trump win statewide, but also saw Republicans regain a slim majority in the State House. Hoekstra’s primary contributors were long-time NeverTrump RINO’s Betsy DeVos and section 8 billionaire Terri Lynn Land.

The election for Michigan Republican Party State Chair is on February 21-22nd, 2025.

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