Michigan GOP rejects Trump's choice, elects Sen. Jim Runestad as state party chair
State Sen. Jim Runestad of White Lake Township defeated Trump's endorsed candidate, Meshawn Maddock of Milford, on the second ballot at Huntington Place, taking close to 63% of the votes cast by about 1,900 delegates.
"We are going to turn the grassroots into a machine, along with the state party, to defeat the Democrats," Maddock told the convention after making a motion to make his victory unanimous.
Runestad is recognized as one of Michigan's most conservative state lawmakers, serving in the Senate since 2019 after serving in the state House from 2015 through 2018. He earlier headed a financial services company.
"I have never surrendered our conservative values to special interest temptations," Runestad said in a Saturday video message to delegates, ahead of the voting.
Runestad was elected to a two-year term. He told reporters after the vote he plans to keep his seat in the Senate, which runs through the end of 2026, and expects to have no trouble fulfilling both roles.
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Despite Trump's strong hold on the party, particularly at the level of activists who attend conventions, Saturday marked the third convention in two years at which delegates have rejected a Trump endorsement. In 2023, delegates chose Kristina Karamo for chair over Kalamazoo attorney Matt DePerno, at a state convention in Lansing. And at a 2024 state convention in Flint, GOP delegates chose state Rep. Andrew Fink of Adams Township as a Michigan Supreme Court nominee over Trump's choice, Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra.
At Saturday's convention, delegate Josh Powell wore a "MAGA" baseball hat and a Runestad shirt.
"I think Trump probably made the endorsement (of Maddock) on about 30 seconds worth of information," said Powell. "I respect his endorsement, but the internal politics is different."
Powell, who was an unsuccessful GOP candidate in Michigan's 25th House District in 2024, said he has a high opinion of Maddock but believes Runestad will be a more successful fundraiser and will be more effective in communicating with the news media than she would have been.
The convention was mostly upbeat. Michigan Republicans are buoyed by the January return of President Donald Trump to the White House and their recaptured control of the state House in the Nov. 5 election.
Now, attention is focused on 2026, when the Michigan governor, attorney general and secretary of state positions will be up for election, along with both chambers of the state Legislature and an open U.S. Senate seat. Republicans have not elected a U.S. senator in Michigan since 1994.
Though pushback is underway, even in Republican areas, on some of the federal government layoffs and spending cuts orchestrated by Trump and his billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, Michigan Republicans showed no signs Saturday of wanting Trump, who has few critics among party activists, to pump the brakes.
"Every morning, many of us wake up and say, 'What executive order is he going to sign today?'" outgoing party Chair Pete Hoekstra said to enthusiastic applause at the convention. Hoekstra is awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation as Trump's choice to serve as ambassador to Canada.
Several delegates voiced support for the layoffs and spending cuts in interviews with the Free Press Saturday.
Two years ago, Michigan Republicans elected Kristina Karamo, the unsuccessful 2022 candidate for secretary of state as party chair. But her term came to an acrimonious end in January 2024, amid dismal fundraising and other controversies. The party's state committee voted to replace Karamo, who has never conceded her double-digit 2022 election loss to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, with Hoekstra, a former west Michigan congressman and U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands.
Some in the party feared that electing Maddock, a controversial figure who faces state criminal charges of falsely claiming to be a 2020 Michigan presidential elector, would spell more discord.
Delegates who nominated one of the other chair candidates, third-place finisher Joe Cella, gave speeches with thinly veiled criticisms of Maddock, who served as state party co-chair in 2022, when Democrats swept to their first trifecta in four decades, winning back both the state House and Senate while returning Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for a second four-year term. That year, Maddock was also criticized for endorsing Republican candidates Matt DePerno for attorney general and Karamo for secretary of state ahead of the convention, when top state party officials normally remain neutral.
Jeannie Burchfield of Calhoun County, who nominated Cella, said "this is not the time" to elect leaders "who have failed in the past."
Cella, a party activist and former Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador to Fiji who endorsed Runestad after the first ballot, is ethical and "will not put his finger on the scales," when party nominations are being decided, said 5th Congressional District delegate Hank Choate, who like Maddock is criminally charged in the "false elector" case brought by Attorney General Dana Nessel. Defendants are awaiting a judge's ruling on whether they will be bound over for trial after preliminary hearings.
In a video message shown to delegates ahead of the voting, Maddock said one of the lessons learned in the last decade is that "Donald Trump is always right," as the video displayed an image of Trump's social media endorsement of her.
Meghan Reckling, a party activist and former Livingston County chair, talked about the growth she has seen in Maddock as a leader in the 10 years she has known her and described Maddock as "disciplined, strategic, and unwavering," while "fearless."
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Republicans reject Trump's choice for state party chair
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