Diplomat and political advisor Joseph Cella wants to lead the Michigan Republican Party’s fight “to defeat the Democrats and get results for President Trump.”
Cella, Trump’s former ambassador to Fiji and four other Pacific nations, announced his bid to chair the Michigan GOP on X just before Christmas, joining at least two others vying to lead the party through the midterms.
“President Donald Trump’s 2024 resounding victory was a mandate for our conservative agenda and values,” Cella posted to X, along with a video. “The Michigan Republican Party must now work to advance President Trump’s agenda and to rebuild our great state in the wake of the destructive Whitmer record of broken promises, lunatic liberalism, and failed left-wing ideology.”
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While Republicans hope to expand a new state House majority in 2026, state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet’s victory in U.S. House District 8 in November provides another opportunity to change the dynamic in the state Senate before then, Cella contends.
“A good battle hardening exercise for us and the mid-terms is more imminent with the special election to replace Senator Kirsten McDonald Rivet in the 35th State Senate District (parts of Midland, Bay and Saginaw Counties) is ‘nigher’ and can be won by a Republican,” wrote Cella, a father of seven and graduate of Hillsdale College. “That is Trump Country! President Trump won those counties by an average of 54.8%. Governor Gretchen Whitmer just needs to call it!
“If that seat is picked up by a Republican, the Michigan State Senate would be in a 19-19 tie,” he wrote. “Things then would get very interesting in Lansing.”
Voters in November ended the first Michigan Democratic government trifecta in 40 years by electing a Republican majority to take over the state House next week. The state Senate will shift to a 19-18 Democratic advantage when McDonald Rivet is sworn into Congress on Friday.
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President-elect Trump nominated Michigan GOP Chair Pete Hoekstra to serve as ambassador to Canada, and credited the former congressman with leading Republicans to victory in the Great Lakes State in November.
Since serving as Trump’s ambassador from 2017 to 2021, Cella worked closely with Hoekstra in a united effort to expose national security and other issues with a electric vehicle battery component plant slated for Mecosta County.
Gotion, Inc. secured $715 million in taxpayer funded business incentives from the Whitmer administration through secret negotiations, despite the company’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Testifying to Congress about a CCP-Gotion influence campaign in Michigan, Cella pointed to court filings that demonstrate Gotion won favor for the project from since-recalled township officials “with all-expense paid trips to China, million dollar real estate deals, and promises of employment,” according to an October congressional report.
Trump has also targeted Gotion on social media, where he wrote the planned plant outside of Big Rapids “would be very bad for the State and our Country” and “put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”
“I’m running for Chairman to rebuild our party and to serve President Trump by leading the fight to take back our state from the corrupt and failed Whitmer/Benson/Nessel left-wing cartel,” Cella posted to X, referring to the Democrat governor, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel, respectively. “I believe I offer a unique combination of experience as a proven conservative leader, and Lansing outsider to defeat the Democrats and get results for President Trump.”
Others vying to do the same include Michigan conservative activist Meshawn Maddock, wife of state Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, and state Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake.
Runestad announced bid in November with a promise to “bring transparency, accountability, and integrity” to the position.
Maddock followed in December with a vow “to be the biggest attack dog on Gretchen Whitmer and Lansing Democrats, while also being the biggest cheerleader for Michigan House Republicans and President Trump.”
The Michigan Democratic Party will also get new leadership after current chairwoman Lavora Barnes announced her decision not to seek a fourth two-year term on Nov. 13.
Both parties are expected to select new leaders at conventions early next year.