By ISABELLA VOLMERT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republicans in Michigan may choose a MAGA activist leader who is charged with being a fake elector for Donald Trump to lead the party into the 2026 midterms, when the battleground state will hold several major races, including for a critical U.S. Senate seat.

Meshawn Maddock, known for her ardent dedication to President Trump, strong connections to his grassroots supporters and disputes with “establishment” Republicans, is seeking the party’s chair position during Saturday’s state GOP convention. She was endorsed by Trump for the chair position Thursday.

Her election would elevate a prominent denier of the 2020 election results to spearhead GOP efforts in Michigan, a state Trump won last fall and in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

“Michigan’s going to be the center of the universe,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the state party. “Who is in that position needs to be able to help raise money to meet some pretty ambitious goals.”

The case against Maddock

Maddock is accused of acting as a false elector for Trump after the 2020 election and faces eight forgery and conspiracy charges. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, has charged 14 other Republicans in the case. One of the original defendants had his charges dropped in a cooperation deal.

The defendants have insisted their actions were not illegal and Maddock believes the case will be dropped.

“If anything, I think that persuades people to support me even more because they know how we’ve been victimized,” she said.

Michigan was among seven battleground states where supporters of Trump signed certificates after the 2020 election that falsely stated he won their states, not Biden. Investigators have said the group in Michigan, which included Maddock, signed a document during a meeting at the state Republican headquarters in December 2020, falsely stating they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified electors.”

Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes over President Trump in 2020, a result confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021.

The group in the fake electors case is currently waiting on a county district judge to decide whether there is enough evidence to go to trial. A hearing for Maddock and other defendants is scheduled for March 28, about a month after the state GOP convention.

Who is Meshawn Maddock?

Maddock was an early Trump supporter from southeast Michigan. With a fiery MAGA attitude, the occasional headline-grabbing, offensive online post and direct line to Trump during the campaign season, her antagonistic brand has been directed at traditional GOP donors but is nevertheless popular.

“The reason you might think that I butted heads with the establishment is I was doing something that nobody had ever done before,” she said.

Maddock is running for the position against state Sen. Jim Runestad and Joseph Cella, a former Trump ambassador to Fiji.

The state of the Michigan GOP

The next party leader would replace Pete Hoekstra, a former congressman widely credited with bringing the state party out of inner turmoil to deliver Republican wins in November, including flipping a congressional seat and taking the majority in the state House of Representatives.

In 2023, a grassroots revolution ushered in political newcomer Kristina Karamo, who peddled election conspiracy, as state GOP chair. The party’s finances tanked under her leadership and an ensuing power struggle resulted in some Michigan Republicans, national Republicans and Trump installing Hoekstra in her place.

Hoekstra is not seeking the chair position again after Trump nominated him to serve as ambassador to Canada.

The stakes are high as the midterms take shape. Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters recently announced he is not seeking reelection, opening a competitive seat. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term limited and names are lining up to replace her. Control of the state House of Representatives and Senate are on the line as well as the offices of Attorney General, Secretary of State and two state Supreme Court seats.

Maddock’s plan for the chair race and beyond

Whether Maddock, a former party co-chair, has the same financial support and fundraising chops as Hoekstra has been a question in the chair race, with memories of Karamo’s tenure not far off.

Maddock said she’s brought on a team that will “reassure a lot of the older institutional Republicans, a lot of the older institutional donors that I’m going to run a really strong, solid party, no nonsense.”

Maddock’s plan to win elections starts with continuing relationships with the coalition that migrated toward Republicans in the 2024 election. She plans to establish and grow “ambassador” positions to Black, Indian, Muslim, Chaldean, and other communities in and around southeast Michigan.

“I want to be growing and expanding these coalitions right now into these communities,” she said.

Vance Patrick, chair of the Oakland County GOP, said Maddock’s pending criminal charges aren’t part of the discussion for delegates who will vote Saturday. Maddock is the strongest of the three candidates, he said.

Roe said while the charges may give some donors pause, to delegates, it’s a sign she is a fighter.

“We’ve reached a point now where none of these kinds of allegations carry weight anymore for a lot of reasons,” Roe said.