On Jan. 3, Michigan Republican Party co-Chairman Meshawn Maddock proudly posted on Facebook a picture of the handwritten note she received from former President Donald Trump announcing his support for yet another candidate running for a seat in the state Legislature.
“Imagine a man so caring that he not only stops to sign his endorsement, sends it to me to give to a candidate AND draws a sharpie [heart symbol] on the outside of the envelope,” Maddock wrote in the post showing the Save America press release signed by Trump and its envelope. “President Trump is VERY excited about elections in Michigan, so am I! Let’s Go [heart symbol].”
Trump has been more active in endorsing Republicans running for office down-ballot in Michigan, especially candidates vying for a seat in the Legislature (at least nine so far) than perhaps any other state. The former president has also endorsed candidates in GOP primaries for attorney general and secretary of state. Throughout, Maddock has been his “sherpa,” more than a half-dozen knowledgeable Republican operatives in Michigan and Trump’s orbit told the Washington Examiner.
Last year, the Michigan GOP’s second-in-command brought Trump a series of 2022 candidates to consider endorsing that he or anyone in his position could not possibly be expected to know. As a senior party official, Maddock is supposed to remain neutral in primaries. Her key role in the former president’s aggressive intervention in GOP politics in the Midwestern battleground is splintering Michigan Republicans and roiling the state party.
“Meshawn is definitely in his ear and telling him who her favorites are,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist in Michigan and former executive director of the state GOP.
“She has provided several suggested endorsements, and the president has carefully considered them,” added a Republican operative familiar with Trump’s involvement in Michigan.
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A spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party said Wednesday that Maddock was “under the weather” and unavailable to speak with the Washington Examiner directly. But in a prepared statement, she acknowledged advising Trump on Michigan candidates and said his endorsements boost efforts to oust Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other Democrats seeking reelection. Maddock did not address complaints about her choosing sides in primaries or the GOP infighting it sparked.
“I have a good relationship with President Trump and I’m proud of it. The president and I often talk about politics and about winning this year and beyond,” Maddock said. “As such, he often asks for my advice as an individual which I’m always happy to give. I am happy that he continues to be engaged and in good spirits because there’s a lot of work to be done to elect more Republicans up and down the ballot.”
Republican insiders in Michigan emphasize Maddock is doing far more than offering Trump advice.
They say Maddock is searching out candidates who back Trump’s unsupported claim that the 2020 contest was stolen — working against Republicans who oppose the former president and loyal soldiers who may disagree with him on one glaring issue: the outcome of the last election. Maddock is not operating quietly, either, as revealed in the Jan. 3 Facebook missive celebrating Trump’s Dec. 16 endorsement of Mike Hoadley.
Maddock’s critics argue her actions are as much a scheme to elect her husband as speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives as they are about boosting institutional support for Trump in Lansing, the state capital. There, top GOP leaders who otherwise back the 45th president also rejected his election fraud allegations and resisted his attempts to use the Legislature to overturn the outcome of a 2020 contest President Joe Biden won by 2.8 percentage points.
Matt Maddock, a sitting state representative, was endorsed by Trump in November.
“Matt, I am with you all the way. Also, you have a great wife,” the former president told him in a handwritten note scribbled on top of a printout of a Detroit News article about his ambitions for the speakership. Meshawn Maddock posted a picture of the note on Facebook Nov. 11, adding: “Thank you Mr. President, we won’t let you down.”
Maddock’s apparent self-interest is not all that rankles Michigan Republicans who are unhappy she is collaborating with Trump on endorsements. They claim the candidates she presents to the former president are sometimes of marginal quality, possibly jeopardizing GOP gains this fall. And, they grumble her actions have provoked avoidable dissension in the ranks and general frustration — especially among the Republicans Trump spurned.
“Everybody talks about it, but no one has confidence that [Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser] or anyone is going to do anything about it,” said a veteran Republican strategist in the state.
“There’s actually infighting with the Trump movement right now,” added a second GOP operative based in Michigan. “There’s a whole fight going on over who’s Trumpier.”
Granted, Trump does not always listen to Maddock.
Maddock, a fan of Republican gubernatorial contender James Craig, was in the room with the retired Detroit police chief when he met Trump to pitch an endorsement. The former president was not impressed, and he has still not backed a candidate in this primary. In the contest to pick a GOP nominee for attorney general, Republicans say Maddock preferred Tom Leonard, who happens to be the consensus establishment choice. Trump endorsed attorney Matthew DePerno.
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Trump is regularly inundated with endorsement requests. Ambitious Republicans make the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s social club and winter residence in Palm Beach, Florida, to ask for his support. Or, in the summer months, they make the trip to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to meet with him and ask for his support in primaries. The process can be a bit unwieldy, as are many aspects of Trump’s decision-making.
In addition to a formal candidate-vetting process run by the 45th president’s top political aides, he constantly talks to a range of informal advisers and supporters around the country and uses their feedback to decide who to support. Those choices sometimes contradict the advice that surfaces from the candidate vetting conducted by his team. Once the endorsement is granted, Save America, Trump’s political action committee, cuts a check for the candidate.
