What to expect as Republicans and Democrats meet in Detroit this weekend to select new party chairs

On Saturday, members of the Michigan Democratic Party and the Michigan Republican Party will meet to, among other things, select their next chair to lead the party heading into 2026. 

At the MIGOP convention, being held at Huntington Place in Detroit, members will select their next chair from three candidates: former party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, State Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) and Joe Cella, who served as ambassador to Fiji during President Donald Trump’s first term. While Republican Consultant Scott Greenlee previously placed his hat in the ring, he has since dropped out, giving Maddock his endorsement. 

Members of the Democratic Party, meeting at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, will choose between former state Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing) and community organizer Al “BJ” Williams, with the former chair of the party’s Rural Caucus, Mark Ludwig, dropping his bid to run as second vice chair on the slate for the Michigan Solidarity Coalition. 

While Republicans were able to win control of the House in 2024, they will need to defend that majority during the next election cycle as all 110 seats are back on the ballot. The 38 seats of the Michigan state Senate — which is currently led by Democrats — will also be on the ballot alongside the governorship as each party vies to reclaim control of the Legislature and the executive office. 

Additionally, with U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.) opting against seeking reelection in 2026, Michigan will likely see another highly competitive Senate race, while several members of the U.S. House aim to defend their own battleground districts.

Republicans seek to make further headway in 2026

With current MIGOP chair Pete Hoekstra departing to serve as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada, Maddock has emerged as a favorite, including among attendees at a forum held in Berrien County, winning 66.7% of the straw poll vote among the 60 participants. 

Runestad received 23.3%, while Greenlee won 8.3% and Cella placed last with 1.7% of the vote. 

Maddock, who is married to state Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford), is a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump and is one of the 15 people facing charges as part of the fake electors scheme which aimed to falsely deliver Michigan’s electoral votes for Trump in the 2020, despite his loss to former President Joe Biden. 

Maddock previously served as the party’s co-chair alongside chair Ron Weiser from 2021 to 2023.

Runestad is serving his second term in the state Senate after serving four years in the Michigan House of Representatives. He was previously ranked as one of the state’s most conservative senators and has touted his effort to combat undocumented immigration as an Oakland County commissioner by implementing the federal E-Verify program used to determine if employees are eligible to work in the United States.

In addition to serving as ambassador to Fiji, Cella served as the Catholic liaison for Trump’s 2016 campaign, as well as a member of his transition team. 

Heading into Saturday, GOP Strategist Jason Roe said Republicans want to see a leader who can take advantage of the opportunities Republicans have in 2026.

While there won’t be a huge difference from Hoekstra as far as stewardship of the party, the most important thing is having a leader the Republican National Committee can trust, said Roe, who previously served as the party’s executive director. 

“I think with any of these three, you will get that,” Roe said. 

However, there will be some questions about what each candidate can do for fundraising, as many donors have checked out following the chaos of the 2020 election, Roe said.

“I think with Meshawn you have someone that probably animates the grassroots more. You have in Joe Cella someone who probably has more confidence from the traditional Republican donors. And you have in Runestad someone who’s been a very effective partisan in Lansing and, you know, brings kind of this fighting attitude to the job. So it’s three different styles, three different backgrounds, but you know, I think any of the three can do that most important job, which is working with the National Committee on the priorities of the state,” Roe said. 

Looking into 2026, moving money will be crucial for the party chair, Roe said, with the Republican Governors Association, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Party all looking for a trusted partner. 

“My back of the envelope [calculation] is that we’re going to spend probably somewhere in the neighborhood of seven to $800 million on elections between the two parties, given everything that’s going on. So there’s going to be just this huge inflow of money into the state, and a lot of that is going to travel through the Michigan Republican Party and so those organizations need to know that they can trust the leadership of the party,” said Roe.

However, fidelity to Trump may be more important among the state’s delegates, Roe said, adding that while Maddock likely has the strongest claim to that mantle, both Runestad and Cella have very legitimate relationships with the Trump administration.

“What has changed a lot over the last several years since Trump’s ascendancy is that party activists have been less focused on what it takes to win elections and more focused on fidelity to Donald Trump. And now, if fidelity to Donald Trump is the only factor, the party is not going to be as effective as it can be,” Roe said. 

“The party is there, not to enforce an agenda, it is there to win elections. That’s the job. And so, you know, hopefully the delegates are focused on what it takes to win the job. There shouldn’t be a debate on if any of these three is going to be loyal to the Trump agenda,” Roe said.

While Maddock does animate the grassroots members of the party, Roe noted that most activists work on behalf of candidates, not the party. 

“The next party chair should have an effective plan for advocacy, going door to door, phone banks, etc, and for get out the vote and absentee [ballot] chase programs. So it’s less that the party is going to be able to inspire people to go do the work, it’s more that the party is building an effective apparatus, yeah, for the work, and then the candidates typically provide the bodies that fuel this,” Roe said. 

While the party was previously on unstable ground, with members of the party voting to oust former Chair Kristina Karamo, sparking legal action and much debate over whether she’s been properly ousted, Hoekstra has put the party back together with duct tape and spit, Roe said. 

However, while the state party is not leaking, they don’t quite know how afloat they are, Roe said. 

“Michigan is going to be one of, probably top three battlegrounds in the country. I think there’s going to be a lot of aggressive involvement from the Republican National Committee and the Trump White House, you know, two assets that weren’t really in place in the same way in the past,” Roe said.

“I think no matter who wins, we’re going to have stability in the organization,” he said. 

Democrats face calls to rebuild after disappointing results in 2024

With Lavora Barnes, who has served as the Michigan Democratic Party chair since 2018 deciding not to seek reelection, Dems must search for new leadership to help carry the party through the next election cycle. 

Alongside serving in the Michigan State Senate from 2015 through 2022, Hertel served as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s legislative director before resigning to run for U.S. House in Michigan’s 7th Congressional district. However, Hertel was ultimately unsuccessful, winning 46.6% of the vote against his former Senate colleague, now U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte), who received 50.3% of the vote. 

On his website campaigning for chair, Williams touts his 25 years of experience in political leadership and advocacy. He founded Vote Smart Detroit, a voter registration and education initiative targeting Detroit Public School students, co-founded and served as a chartering board member of both the party’s grassroots caucus and the cannabis caucus. Williams also served as the executive director of United Precinct Delegates, which trains and supports precinct delegates to serve as a bridge between the Democratic Party and their community. 

While each candidate carries their own personal platform, Paul Kanan, president of the Kanan Company who previously served as the party’s press secretary and communications director, said the biggest issue moving into this convention will be rebuilding or solidifying the party’s grassroots, urban and rural presence. 

Fortunately, that infrastructure already exists in the party’s Project 83, Kanan said, launched after Trump’s victory in 2016 to place a greater focus on local parties and candidates alongside local leadership and grassroots support in all 83 of Michigan’s Counties. 

 If the party can get back to the place where it was in 2018 — where Democrats won both the Governorship, the Attorney General’s Office and the Secretary of State — that is where the party would like to be, Kanan said. 

“Not just in terms of electoral victory, but the infrastructure and the atmosphere and the energy all in that particular timeframe,” Kanan said. 

While Williams has an extensive record of working with folks on the ground as an activist, Hertel comes from politics and knows the people and the community he serves, alongside holding relationships from his time in government, Kanan said. 

Neither candidate just wants the job, they’re both passionate about it, Kanan said.

The three most important things for either candidate is their relationships, the desire to serve as chair and support for their platforms, Kanan said.

“What’s going to be most important is how the general electorate of the party decides who will be able to be most effective in that. Whose relationships combination is going to best serve the party and acknowledging that the other individual who receives less votes is still a valuable partner,” Kanan said.

Regardless of who wins, party leadership will need to have a conversation with the individuals who also ran and those who ran for other positions in order to find a common vision for the party, Kanan said. 

“What is our framework, what is our narrative, our branding that we can all get behind and move forward together, rather than having issues that we all want to address divide us because we don’t feel one is doing more than the other,” Kanan said. 

Serving as a bridge between the national party and the county and local parties is also crucial, Kanan said. While that infrastructure already exists, it’s a matter of rejuvenating those inroads and having year-round conversations rather than having members parachute into Detroit or pay lip service to Northern Michigan, Kanan said.

The conversation has to include everyone, Kanan said, noting that the state party under previous chair Brandon Dillon and under Barnes had asserted itself as a strong state party focused on Michigan voters and Michigan issues.

“I think that’s what’s really important. To have your organizers on the ground, your regional organizers talking directly to your senior staff with the party,” Kanan said. 

Looking into 2026, the party needs to have a team that can hit the ground running and play things right down the middle when it comes to primaries, Kanan said. 

“One of the main tenets of both of the previous chairs was ‘we don’t pick sides until the side is decided by Democrats,’” Kanan said, noting that neutrality will be critical while working to provide resources and amplify all Democratic candidates.

“They’re going to decide the mood, the atmosphere and the type of races these candidates will be able to run because they’re going to want to be able to look to the party and say, ‘Okay, I know whether I win or lose right now the party’s got my back.’ So that way, when the time comes, those races are decided, you have your election candidates, they can still count on their fellow Democrats, who are no longer opponents,” Kanan said. 

All Democrats and candidates, registered or not, need to have an on-ramp to the conversation and an off-ramp from where they were, Kanan said. 

“The key is to be not just a welcoming party, but a party that says ‘you are going to work with us. We are going to work for you, and together, we are going to bring the Democratic Party back to the people,’” Kanan said.

Over the past year, the renomination of former President Joe Biden in the 2024 election amid Israel’s war on Gaza created divisions within both the state and national party, as members of the “Uncommitted” movement sought to pressure the Biden-Harris administration to bring about a ceasefire and end weapons transfers to Israel.

Some members of the Uncommitted movement eventually transformed into an Abandon Biden campaign, and then later Abandon Harris when then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris ended up losing Michigan to Trump by less than 80,000 votes out of more than five million that were cast.

The movement has since prompted a Palestinian-American led group calling itself the People’s Coalition to put forth several candidates for positions within the party in hopes of bringing more underrepresented voices to the table, calling attention to issues including housing and immigration. The group’s leadership, however, says it is made up of committed Democrats, dedicated to electing other Democrats.

While issues like immigration are particularly important, especially at this moment, Democrats need to realize that just because the flame is burning brightest for one issue does not mean that’s the issue that needs to be addressed, Kanan said, noting that Democrats need to work to find common ground both within that issue and across others. 

“In this haze of destruction that’s going on at the moment, it becomes difficult to say, ‘Oh, which one is most important?’ Well, what’s most important is winning. And at the end of the day, the individual who is elected chair, that’s what they are there to do. This is a short timeframe. This is not about building the party back up from the ground up,” Kanan said. 

Michigan is a blue state, despite how previous elections may have blurred those colors, Kanan said, and the infrastructure to make Michigan a blue state remains. 

“I think embracing that and then making building that party muscle, again, is key. And the more people that are with the next Democratic Party, if you will, the stronger it’s going to be,” Kanan said. 

It can’t be a matter of “this should have been done, this isn’t done,” it should be “what do we have to do,” Kanan said. While nobody will get everything they want, those conversations are just as important to satisfying folks, he said. 

“I think when people feel heard, they’re more likely to have a conversation,” Kanan said. 

When asked how division over Israel and Palestine might influence the upcoming party convention, Kanan noted that people were not able to have those conversations during the previous party convention. 

“People were not able to have real conversations, primarily because it literally is an ongoing issue where the party in the White House cannot discuss what’s actually going on, which does allow the other side, you know, to fill in what they want folks to hear,” Kanan said.

“To be clear, though, is the Michigan Democratic Party, and we have a very strong and robust Arab Muslim community, and they should have a voice. And they do have a voice, clearly,” Kanan said.

“I think what’s important is to say, this is where we stood then. We see what happened. We know certain people made decisions that they probably regret. We don’t need to punish them. We need to give them the off-ramp to say, ‘Come home. Let’s fight back together. Let’s win this back again together,” Kanan said.