Michigan Democrats, GOP to pick new leaders as battle for 2026 begins

• Michigan GOP, Democratic Party to elect news leaders Saturday in competing Detroit conventions
• Republican Meshawn Maddock and Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr. appear to be favorites but face spirited challenges
• Elections come at key moments for both parties as they prepare for high-stakes 2026 election cycle with several big races

LANSING — Thousands of delegates from Michigan's two major political parties will elect new leaders Saturday in conventions across the street from one another in downtown Detroit.

The new chairs will be tasked with facilitating victories for their parties in a crucial 2026 election that will decide open races for US Senate, governor, attorney general and secretary of state posts currently held by Democrats. 

On the Republican side, President Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed loyalist Meshawn Maddock for state party chair, solidifying her frontrunner status despite an ongoing criminal case stemming from her alleged role as a “fake elector” in 2020.

Former state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. has racked up endorsements from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, labor groups and other officials in his bid to lead the Michigan Democratic Party after losing his own campaign for Congress last year. 

But both face spirited competition heading into the conventions. And both races will be consequential. 

Democrats face a big challenge as they attempt to regroup from a stinging loss in the presidential race and return to winning ways that brought them trifecta control of state government after the 2022 election and a growing liberal majority on the state supreme court.

The Michigan Republican Party, meanwhile, is coming off some significant gains in 2024: winning control of the state House, flipping a congressional seat to take a 7-6 edge in the US House delegation and narrowly carrying the state for Trump. 

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But that success came after nearly 18 months of turmoil under the leadership of former chair Kristina Karamo, who was forcibly ousted from the party by a dissenting faction early last year. Her successor, former Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, is departing the party to again serve as ambassador under Trump, this time to Canada. 

The Michigan GOP remains in debt and has struggled to find candidates capable of replicating Trump’s statewide success. Save for his two victories, no Republican nominee has won a major statewide race since 2014. Democrats have consistently turned out more voters in Michigan’s midterm elections — driven in part by popular liberal ballot campaigns legalizing marijuana in 2018 and establishing constitutional abortion protections in 2022. 

As Hertel put it in a recent candidate forum: "The stakes are very high right now."

Democrats regroup, rebuild

The Democratic Party chair race has been marked by recent controversy after candidate Al Williams asserted it is “not the Jewish party,” a comment he’s called a misunderstood pitch for inclusion amid internal strife over the Gaza war – but one that Jewish groups and others quickly denounced. 

Largely, though, the race has been dominated by debate over what went wrong for Democrats in 2024 and how to rebuild after losses, which Hertel knows well after losing his own congressional race to Republican Tom Barrett by four percentage points.  

“I think that people are sick and tired of us showing up in September and asking for their votes,” Hertel said in an interview with Bridge Michigan, arguing the party has to “get back to that model of being on the ground everywhere.”

Despite being a longtime Democratic insider, Hertel hasn’t shied away from criticizing his party. Calling it “a big tent,” he said Democrats need to do a better job emphasizing issues that impact working-class people — like wages, water affordability and affordable housing. 

He called it “a huge mistake” by the Democratic-led Legislature to wait until after the November 2024 election to pass bills expanding unemployment benefits.

“We need an economic message that actually speaks to people,” Hertel said. He argued the party does fight for working people but “if they're not getting it, they're not hearing it, we have to rethink how we're messaging, how we legislate and we have to think about on the ground, what we're doing differently to get to those people.”

Democrats failed to win a majority of votes among people making less than $50,000 a year in the last election and Hertel is concerned about a situation “where we could permanently lose people, and we got to change everything we do to make sure that doesn't happen.”

Hertel said he’d like to see more organizing and investment at the local level, both for candidates and parties, arguing “local candidates can carry areas and sell the democratic message a lot better than a national Democrat.”

Williams, who did not respond to an interview request for this story, is a Detroit-based organizer who has campaigned as a grassroots candidate with plans to rebuild the party from the ground up. 

Movements are started “in the working class and the working poor,” he said in the forum. “That’s how we’re going to shake things up in this party, and that's the only way that we're going to change things for the betterment of this country.”

Williams criticized Biden and the Democratic administration for "continuing to support Israel" and contributing to what he called the “movement of genocide and innocent human beings."

One factor uniting the Democratic candidates: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's decision to leave the party and run for governor as an independent. 

“We have seen people before that run populist campaigns paid for by billionaires. That’s what Mike Duggan is," Hertel said in a forum. "We have to be willing to punch him in the mouth and say exactly who he is."

‘Fake elector’ case looms

The GOP contest to replace Hoekstra has been feisty, with former Ambassador Joe Cella and state Sen. Jim Runestad both questioning Maddock's record as co-chair in 2022. 

Maddock upended party orthodoxy that year by endorsing attorney general candidate Matt Deperno and secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo before the GOP nominating convention. Both went on to lose in the general election.

Maddock, however, has boasted of her personal relationship with Trump, telling delegates she has his cell phone number and has communicated with him in multiple instances.

“Nobody else running has the relationship with President Trump that I have. It’s a personal relationship. He answers the phone if I call him. He’s called me many times,” Maddock said at a recent candidate forum. “It’s an unbelievable relationship of trust.”

Maddock has also downplayed her own criminal case, which remains in the preliminary examination phase as a Lansing judge considers whether Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel's office has presented enough evidence to proceed to trial. The next hearing is scheduled for March 28.

"I think redemption is near," Maddock, who cancelled a planned interview for this story, said in a recent GOP candidate forum. "...Trump won, thank God, and they built no case against the electors. So I'm pretty sure that the whole thing is going to fall apart." The president is unable to pardon state charges, however.

Maddock is accused of signing a document falsely claiming that Trump won Michigan's 2020 election despite his 154,188 vote loss to Democrat Joe Biden. She's charged with forgery, which could be punishable by up to 14 years in prison. 

‘A weakened state’

Maddock’s opponents have not made her criminal case an issue, however. Instead, they’ve questioned her ability to lead a party that suffered losses when she served as co-chair.

Cella, who served as an Ambassador to Fiji during Trump’s first term, is running on a promise to “make MIGOP great again.”

“The party is in a weakened state, and it precedes Ambassador Hoekstra or Kristina Karamo,” Cella said in an interview with Bridge. 

He wants to operate the party more like a business, Cella said, “and then raising the money necessary to identify, prepare and support the candidates that can beat the Democrats in 2026.”

Cella calls himself a “Lansing outsider” but has deep political roots. He ran a consulting firm called the Pontifex Group, served as the Catholic liaison for Trump’s 2016 campaign and as a member of his transition team. 

More recently, he helped organize opposition to the planned development of a Big Rapids area electric vehicle battery plant by Chinese-based Gotion Inc., which he has argued is a national security threat. 

His track record as a bridge-builder, Cella said, can bring together factions of the party, though he didn’t detail how. He pointed to former Gov. John Engler and President Ronald Reagan as examples of leadership.

Runestad, who has served as a state legislator for a decade, is touting his ability to fundraise and communicate, calling his oratory acumen the “No. 1 thing I bring to the picture.” 

The White Lake Republican represents northern Oakland County, and has gained a reputation as a vociferous objector in the Democrat-controlled state Senate.

He told Bridge he’ll bring unity to the party by focusing on “the real enemy of our values” — Democrats — and can motivate turnout for Republican state races by emulating Trump’s rallies. “We would continue in terms of trying to win these statewide races,” he said.

Outreach to ethnic and religious minorities is a focus of Runestad’s, saying he “lost count” of the number of events he’s attended and believes he can broaden the GOP base by bringing East and South Asian and Middle Eastern communities into the fold.

Rusestad would not resign his Senate seat if elected party chair, he said, and has brushed aside concerns that he could effectively hold two full-time jobs. He argued that as a member of the minority he has little on his plate.

“I have a hard time keeping the staff busy with stuff to do” because there’s so little communication from constituents, he said. But even if the GOP won the vacant 35th Senate seat, where Whitmer has yet to hold an election, splitting party control in the chamber, Runestad would stay in office.