Michigan GOP leader calls for secession: America 'tried it once before'

Meshawn Maddock, the co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, suggested that her state should secede from the Union like the pro-slavery Confederacy did before the Civil War.

“Maybe it’s time for a #MIExit American’s [sic] tried it once before! Time to end our Governor’s tyrannical rule,” Maddock wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.

The post was accompanied by a picture of Maddock with Nigel Farage, the xenophobic British politician who has advocated for Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.

Maddock is now the third leader of a state Republican party who has advocated for some form of secession, echoing comments made by the leaders of the GOP in Wyoming and Texas after the 2020 election.

A Donald Trump surrogate in 2020, Maddock was elected co-chair of the state party in February.

Jeff Timmer, who led the Michigan GOP from 2005 to 2009, called Maddock “nuts” in a February 2021 interview, after calling her “the most powerful person in Michigan Republican politics.”

Maddock’s election came after she played a vocal role in efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s election win in Michigan, where Trump won in 2016.

Maddock and her husband, GOP state Rep. Matt Maddock, posted false messages on Facebook claiming irregularities in the state’s election results.

She appeared at a protest at the TCF Center in Detroit and promoted conspiracy theories about the election results.

“Democrats are trying to steal this election and they are not even trying to hide their treachery,” she wrote on Twitter a day later.

Maddock in December signed a document falsely claiming to be an “elector” chosen by Michigan voters to cast a presidential ballot for Trump. The document, which was filed in a court case, claimed that the electors had “convened” in the state Capitol, but they were never actually allowed into the building.

Along with her husband, she also attempted to enter the Capitol to cast an electoral vote for Trump.

A month later, Meshawn Maddock took part in the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“We are here and ready to #StopTheSteal with America!” she wrote the day before the event.

On the day of the protest, Maddock shared a video of the crowd in which a voice could be heard saying, “We need to march on the Capitol when we’re done here and drag these people out of power.”

After the day’s events, Maddock has said she condemns the attack on the building in which five people died.

Maddock was also a part of protests against COVID-19 safety regulations put in place by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She attacked mask wearing and said she would boycott retailers who sold masks.

In April, Maddock shared a tweet that falsely claimed masks are ineffective against the virus.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.