MESHAWN MADDOCK

The Michigan legislature is ramping up to get back to work, with the first committees of the year scheduled to start Tuesday, Jan. 24. Both Democrats and Republicans have somewhat similar plans to roll back a tax on income for retirement pensions, along with a way to raise a tax credit for low- to-moderate income families. Michigan’s current income tax rate sits at 4.25%, though could be decreased to 4.05% this year because of the trigger. However state treasury officials are estimating Michigan will see a $9.2 billion surplus at the end of this fiscal year, increasing the likelihood that all that cash could trigger a cut in the state income tax. RELATED: Michigan redistricting panel still in funding hole despite $1.5M billMichigan House of Representatives take their oaths during first session of the year at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023.

Blake Mazurek, Robin Smith and Timothy Smith filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday in Kent County Circuit Court, asking a jury for at least $25,000 in damages and to declare that the 16 Trump electors broke the law and the Biden electors were truly legitimate. False electors include current Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, national GOP committeewoman Kathy Berden, Shelby Township clerk Stanley Grot and Wyoming mayor Kent Vanderwood. The 16 Trump electors in Michigan signed a false certificate and met outside the state Capitol on voting day – Dec. 14, 2020 – but police did not let them in. Plaintiffs argue the false electors also violated criminal laws, but their lawsuit is civil. “There is just clear evidence to support charges against those 16 false electors, at least in our state,” Nessel said last week.

“Having been involved with politics for many years, and having recruited many delegates and candidates to run for office, we must continue to be focused on winning elections with principled America First candidates,” Maddock wrote. To keep essential staff, she added, that figure could run another $3 million to $4 million more. Biden won Michigan over former President Donald Trump by more than 154,000 votes. “We can’t pick a weak person to be state party Chair in this environment. We can’t pick someone whose track record of fundraising is zero or weak,” Maddock wrote.

Michigan Republicans suffered an almost complete defeat at the polls last month

The alliance that once promised to unify a splintered Michigan Republican Party — through party chair Ron Weiser and co-chair Meshawn Maddock — is set to dissolve. “What happened (on Election Day) and what happened to me throughout the campaign should never happen to another Republican candidate,” DePerno said. The party’s memo had blamed the candidates’ close ties to Trump for putting off Michigan’s wealthiest Republican boosters. DePerno declined to address the party’s memo, saying “there’s enough blame to go around” and repeatedly emphasizing he’d rather everyone just get along. Billy Putman, the chair of the Tuscola County Republican Party, has been running for chair since August.

NOVI, MI – Matthew DePerno may have lost the attorney general race, but soon he could be angling for something else: chair of the Michigan Republican Party. Delegates will vote on the chair at the state party convention in February 2023. DePerno lost his race by 8.7 percentage points, with 99% of votes counted, but he outperformed his counterparts. Tudor Dixon lost the governor race by 10.6 points and Kristina Karamo lost secretary of state by 13 points. The former president enthusiastically endorsed DePerno before his convention race and liked how he challenged the 2020 election results in Antrim County.

NOVI, MI – As absentee vote results lag behind same-day results, Michigan Republican candidates will “absolutely not” declare victory before their races are called by news outlets like the Associated Press. Same-day voters lean Republican, and absentee voters lean Democrat, polling has found. Go deeper: Looking for Michigan election results? President Donald Trump declared victory during this gap on election night in 2020, but subsequent absentee results put Joe Biden ahead for good. Maddock told MLive Tuesday night that she told Trump, “We’re good.

Republicans are hoping Dearborn forgets about their vitriol toward Islam

Republican politicians’ use of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric as a form of political attack has repeatedly resurfaced in Michigan this election cycle in an effort to fire up its base and aid in fundraising. Due to the misguided stereotype that all gay men are inherently effeminate or weak, the tweet also veers into anti-gay territory. He added that so long as there is a base which appreciates it, such rhetoric will continue. “And the energy in the Republican Party right now is for culture war.”A request for comment from the Republican Party on Maddock and DePerno’s continued comments were not returned in time for publication. “I’m raising a little girl and little boy, and I’m going to raise them with better values than the chairwoman,” he said.

The Democratic Transportation Secretary said at the Detroit Auto Show that he will raise his own little girl to have better values than Maddock has.

The co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party is accused of being blatantly homophobic in a tweet about openly-gay U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Using social media for bigoted attacks is nothing new for Maddock

Meshawn Maddock took to Twitter with her distaste of the United States Secretary of Transportation.

They stand behind a podium as Ashley Barrett, wife of Michigan state senator and congressional candidate Tom Barrett, criticizes Democrats on high prices, COVID-19 policies and education policy. But although advertised only as “concerned parents” by the Michigan Republican Party, some of the coalition members at these ‘Parents Against Whitmer’ events are also current GOP candidates or are otherwise already entrenched in conservative politics. The party said seven people attended then, but three that MLive spoke to were also current or former local Republican candidates. “It sounds like sort of the same story,” Gertz said of Parents Against Whitmer events. “And that’s why it’s a very potent thing to say that you are parents for or against a particular candidate.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Michigan’s attorney general is a job traditionally reserved for law enforcement, but Republican AG candidate Matthew DePerno says the office has a place in public education if he is elected. “They want control of their children’s education, and they want to have a say in their kids’ education. And state law gives them that right,” DePerno told reporters after meeting with the handful of parents. But at least three of the seven coalition members are also current or former Republican candidates in West Michigan. Boone is running for Kent County Commissioner this year.

Michigan will likely have a leading role in tonight’s prime time hearing as the state has been consistently at the center of all of this, from the stop the count mob at the TCF Center to false claims of voter fraud to false electors and capitol rioters. All it points to Michigan likely making up a big part of these hearings.

LANSING, MI – State Rep. Matt Maddock, a loyalist to former president Donald Trump and husband of Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, was removed from the House GOP caucus on Tuesday. Maddock’s ouster from the caucus means he can no longer meet with GOP caucus members behind closed doors, to discuss policy and upcoming floor votes. By Tuesday evening, Maddock’s profile was removed from both the Michigan House of Representatives website and the House Republicans website. The last time the House Republican caucus removed one of its members was in 2019, when the caucus voted out state Rep. Larry Inman. Years earlier, in 2015, state Rep. Cindy Gamrat, R-Plainwell, was booted from the House Republican caucus for breaking caucus confidentiality rules by posting a comment on Facebook during an off-campus budget workshop.

Karamo, DePerno are both 2020 election deniers

Trump endorsed Matthew DePerno for attorney general and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state, calling on Republican delegates to fall in line and unite around his picks. The former president endorsed DePerno and Karamo early in the election cycle. Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock endorsed DePerno and Karamo last week. “President Trump has endorsed both of these winners, and Trump is fixing Michigan through these powerful endorsements,” Maddock said in a statement. Trump tells Republican delegates to back Matt DePerno for Michigan attorney general

Monday’s event was the second public campaign stop Johnson held since announcing his candidacy in January. He’s scheduled to visit former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort Tuesday for a fundraiser on behalf of Republican attorney general candidate Matt DePerno. Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock was in the audience Monday. Maddock’s daughter is a staff member of Johnson’s campaign. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell | MLive.comTrump has yet to nominate a gubernatorial candidate, but his blessing is expected to crown a frontrunner in the crowded race.

The chairperson and secretary of a group of 16 Michigan Republicans who signed a false certificate claiming Donald Trump won Michigan’s electoral votes in the 2020 General Election have been subpoenaed by the U.S. House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson sent a congressional panel and the U.S. Attorney General information suggesting the Trump campaign coordinated with Michigan Republicans to overturn the state’s 2020 election result. The department also forwarded a copy of the unofficial certificates, which were signed by Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock and 15 other Republican electors. Benson sent the Tuesday letter to the House committee and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland with additional details of alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and Michigan Republicans. “I’m under a lot of scrutiny for that today.”Benson also highlighted the connection between Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis and the false elector strategy. Documents signed by the Michigan Republicans falsely claimed they cast votes inside the state Capitol, as required by law.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist has been in office for over three years, making history as Michigan’s first African-American lieutenant governor. The Democratic father of three,...

The Trump campaign asked us to do that,” Maddock says in the recording. On the same day, 16 Republicans gathered at the Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing to sign the unofficial certificates falsely claiming Trump won. Stephen Miller, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, went on Fox News earlier that morning to promote the Republican electors as a legitimate route to keep Trump in office. The committee called Trump campaign attorney Rudy Guiliani to testify about his efforts to convince state lawmakers the election was stolen. Maddock became co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party in February 2021.

Michigan Republicans submitted certificates falsely claiming to be the state’s presidential electors after they were directed to do so by Trump’s campaign, Michigan GOP Co-Chair...

Meshawn Maddock, the Co-Chair of the Michigan Republican Party, was one of the 16 GOP electors who submitted false electoral college documents to the National Archive in an attempt to give former President Donald Trump a win after the fact in Michigan.

Meshawn Maddock, the Co-Chair of the Michigan Republican Party, was one of the 16 GOP electors who submitted false electoral college documents to the National Archive in an attempt to give former President Donald Trump a win after the fact in Michigan.

A 2021 Metro Times cover story on the radicalization of Michigan's Republican Party was one of our top stories this week, thanks to a recent...

On the same day, Republican nominees gathered at the Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing to sign the unofficial certificates falsely claiming Trump won. They were denied entry by the Michigan State Police. Trump ultimately pressured former Vice President Mike Pence to install Republican electors or reject Democratic electors from swing states Biden won in response to unproven fraud allegations. A department spokesperson said they answered questions about the 2020 election and events leading up to the U.S. Capitol riot, but declined to go into further detail. The Michigan Republican Party has not been contacted by the Jan. 6 committee as of Wednesday, according to a spokesperson.

Documents show a group from Michigan attempted to overturn the 2020 election by sending false documents to the state, the courts and the national archives.

Former President Donald Trump still won’t let go of his 2020 loss in Michigan.  He called Michigan Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser about a so-called...

LANSING, MI -- Conservative activists delivered several thousand signed affidavits to Michigan lawmakers Thursday, demanding an Arizona-style “forensic audit” of the 2020 election. Colbeck compared the 2020 election with the Biblical persecution of Jesus Christ. Michigan Republican Party Grassroots Vice Chair Marian Sheridan led the affidavit collection drive with support from county-level GOP groups across the state. Several ralliers who spoke with MLive claim the result of an audit is a foregone conclusion: It will show the 2020 election was illegitimate. The prayers started Nov. 4, the day after polls closed in the 2020 election.

Michigan Democrats are urging the GOP-led Legislature to create a bipartisan, independent committee to investigate the role Michigan played in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection...

Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, who spread conspiracy theories about election fraud and downplayed COVID-19, suggested on Facebook that Michigan should secede from the...

State Rep. Matthew Maddock is no stranger to conspiracy theories and lies about both the election and pandemic.

The bill would apply to members of the International Fact-Checking Network, a unit of journalism's Poynter Institute.

Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, who peddled conspiracy theories about election fraud, is now spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Maddock shared a tweet on Tuesday...

A hard-right group founded by state Rep. Matt Maddock and his wife Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock continues to spread misinformation about the 2020...

Several hundred supporters, including West Michigan residents, Republicans seeking office in 2022 and “patriot” activists, held a rally outside Marlena’s Bistro and Pizzeria Saturday calling for the release of Marlena Pavlos-Hackney. Protesters outside a boarded-up Marlena’s Bistro in Holland Saturday carried signs calling for the arrest of Whitmer and Nessel. A customer tested positive for COVID-19 after eating at Marlena’s Bistro on Feb. 27, the Allegan County Health Department reported. Around 20 supporters protested outside the Ingham County Jail Friday while patrons visited the restaurant for breakfast in solidarity with Pavlos-Hackney. Soldano was among a handful of speakers who addressed a massive crowd outside Marlena’s Bistro from the back of a pickup truck.

While the state has swung back to Democrats since Trump's narrow 2016 win, choosing President Joe Biden by more than 150,000 votes, Michigan's Republican Party has taken a hard right turn. Ad“All these things were a catalyst,” said Ken Sikkema, a former Michigan GOP Senate leader whose Grand Rapids district lost 5,000 jobs with three plant closures just before the 2008 crash. “Forces of nature take over at that point, and those forces were definitely tilting right, extreme far-right," said Venable, who was state Republican Party chief of staff in 2010. AdNodding to the emerging right wing, Michigan GOP fundraiser Ron Weiser invited Maddock to share the ticket for his bid to become state party chair. All the while, Michigan's GOP leadership has for the first time in memory bestowed legitimacy on its state's militia, long relegated to the shadows.

Part one of an ongoing series on right-wing extremism and the radicalization of the Michigan Republican Party. click to enlarge Jonathan Oosting, Bridge Michigan , shared with permission, shared with permission Matt and Meshawn Maddock at a Republican Party fundraiser. She is now "the most powerful person in Michigan Republican politics," he says. The mission of the coalition, which goes by the name of Michigan Trump Republicans, is to shift the state GOP further to the right. A handful of volunteers felt called to guide the GOP, and especially the Michigan Republican Party, back to the 'right' side of the road."

that allegedly involved national GOP Party Chair Ronna McDaniel after Weiser allegedly called McDaniel. She is also mentioned in a similar pay-off scheme during her run for Michigan GOP Chair, also allegedly organized by Weiser. Michigan’s GOP elected the new leadership amid party infighting and accusations of illegal activity. One involved an alleged $200,000 pay-off for a candidate to drop out of a race that allegedly involved national GOP Party Chair Ronna McDaniel after Weiser allegedly called McDaniel. She is also mentioned in a similar pay-off scheme during her run for Michigan GOP Chair, also allegedly organized by Weiser.

Mellissa Carone, a software contractor who preached unproven claims of a stolen presidential election, is seeking a Michigan state House seat to end universal absentee voting. Wetmore served on the staff of state Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, who is married to Michigan Republican Party Vice Chair Meshawn Maddock. “There were Trump supporters there, I know that there were, but the problem is is antifa started playing on their emotions,” Carone said. Efforts to end universal absentee voting would likely face steep opposition. “We need to get rid of these mail-in ballots.”Carone tried to draw a distinction between mail-in voting and absentee voting, though the two terms mean the same thing.

Ron Weiser, chairman of the University of Michigan Board of Regents. DETROIT – University of Michigan Board of Regents member Ronald Weiser was elected to Michigan’s GOP chair during Saturday’s virtual Michigan Republican Party 2021 Convention. AdWeiser had been the Michigan GOP chair from 2009-2011 and 2017-2019. Ambassador to Slovakia under President George W. Bush from 2001-2005 and has been on the University of Michigan Board of Regents since 2016. The rest of Saturday’s election results can be read on the Michigan GOP website here.

LANSING — Ron Weiser was elected Saturday to once again lead the Michigan Republican Party, this time alongside Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock. “Meshawn and I are honored and excited to lead the party over the next two critical years,” Weiser said in a statement released by the party. “There is clear evidence that a secret deal was made between Ron Weiser and Stan Grot,” Cox wrote. Weiser was U.S. ambassador to Slovakia under President George W. Bush and formerly served as the Michigan GOP chair from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2017 to 2018. Cox became party chair in early 2019 after serving terms as a state House representative and a Wayne County Commissioner.

LANSING, MI - Laura Cox is back on the ballot in the race for Michigan Republican Party chair, entering the fray days before Saturday’s election. The current party chair went in swinging at Ron Weiser, a two-time former party chair who was previously considered the presumptive incoming co-chair alongside 11th District GOP Chair Meshawn Maddock. Cox accused Weiser in a Jan. 15 email of paying former Secretary of State candidate Stanley Grot $200,000 to step down from his 2018 campaign. “There is clear evidence that a secret deal was made between Ron Weiser and Stan Grot,” she wrote. The contract in question was drafted by counsel, and I relied on that counsel,” Weiser wrote.

ANN ARBOR, MI — University of Michigan faculty and students are mounting two campaigns to remove Ron Weiser from his regent position, citing his “complicity” after the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Weiser is poised to become the co-chair of the party in Michigan. A petition for his removal started shortly after the incidents at the Capitol and now has more than 4,600 signatures. It acknowledges that Weiser was democratically elected to his position on the board and acknowledges his right to seek the chair of the Michigan Republican Party. The main reason Weiser is being recalled, according to Fisher, is that there is an ‘R’ next to his name.

ANN ARBOR, MI — A petition asking for the resignation or recall of University of Michigan Regent Ron Weiser has gained more than 800 signatures in less than 24 hours. The petition, organized on change.org, is not yet recognized by the state as an official recall petition. I watched Michigan destroy Minnesota in basketball, and that kind of contest is something that I strongly support,” Weiser told Bridge. The rally was supposed to be a peaceful event and people who broke the law should be held accountable. READ MORE:Michigan representatives call for Trump’s removal after riots in U.S. Capitol6 from Michigan arrested during riots, storming of Capitol in Washington D.C.Top Republican signals support for banning open carry in Michigan Capitol, but many say that’s not enough

Full Screen Full Screen 1 / 6 Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)Those types of crimes will be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Schneider said. Related: Several Michigan residents charged after deadly siege on US Capitol Building“It looks like the acts took place in Washington, D.C. But it's under review right now — what's the connection of the people in D.C. to the people in Michigan? We didn't encourage anybody to storm the Capitol, and I don't know any of the people that are involved with storming the Capitol."

Padma Kuppa, D-Clawson contended the ransacking of the U.S. Capitol is a sad reminder of April 30, when protestors with guns raided the Michigan Capitol galleries. She believes this week's violence stems, in part, from extremists refusing to accept reality. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown, said that includes Meshawn and her husband, Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, who joined the D.C. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, said fellow lawmakers should not be aligning with politicians who incite violence and divide. "Folks have the right to raise up their voices and articulate their issues and perspectives," Anthony stated.

LANSING, MI - Michigan Republican Party officials expect Meshawn Maddock, the only candidate for party co-chair, to remain on the ballot despite her presence outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. She and her husband, state Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford Twp., joined protesters in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6. “The Speaker hasn’t seen any action that rises” to the level of discipline, said Lynn Afendoulis, former Republican state representative and current House Republican press secretary. Two Michigan House representatives lost committee assignments for comments interpreted as promoting violence last month. Rep. Gary Eisen, R-St. Clair Township, suggested during a radio interview that there was “going to be violence” at the Michigan Capitol prior to the state’s casting of Electoral College votes.

click to enlarge ShutterstockMob of Trump supporters outside the Capitol building on Wednesday. "Meshawn Maddock needs to withdraw as the (unopposed) candidate for co-chairman of the Michigan Republican Party," state Republican activist Dennis Lennox tweeted Wednesday. "If she doesn't, the convention should suspend the rules and elect a candidate from the floor. At one point, she told the crowd, “We never stop fighting.”Only after she came under fire from people within her party did she speak out against the violence.“I condemn the violence and breaching of the capitol in the strongest possible terms,” Maddock tweeted at 11:07 a.m. Thursday. “The rally was supposed to be a peaceful event and people who broke the law should be held accountable.

A protest organized by "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" gathers people to drive around the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 15, 2020. The three states Trump targeted have Democratic governors. Trump also said he was not concerned that the large gatherings of protesters could spread the disease to others. A group calling itself "Liberate Minnesota" staged a protest Friday afternoon outside the residence of the state's governor, Tim Walz. People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 15, 2020.