Over the weekend, The Detroit News reported on MIGOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock making racist comments about Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist – the first Black person to assume the role in Michigan’s history. Maddock tweeted: “Show this video to a babies [sic] and watch them cry. Scary masked man should #StayHome.”
Entirely unsurprising behavior from someone who “used to fly the Confederate flag” on her property according to those in her community, that wasn’t even the only outrageous headline for Maddock to rack up over the past few days.
Last week, she earned national attention for the role she played in trying to install fake electors in Michigan to forcefully certify the election for Donald Trump despite him definitively losing the state. According to CNN, Maddock “boasted at a recent event hosted by a local Republican organization that the Trump campaign directed the entire operation.”
She herself was one of 16 Michigan conspiracy loyalists “who served as fake electors and signed the illegitimate certificate that was sent to the National Archives” and continues to maintain the baseless lie that the election was stolen. She even went so far as to organize busloads of insurrectionists for the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6th in a horrific display killing five and injuring 140 officers.
Yesterday, USA Today reported that Maddock backed up a bizarre, obviously false claim from a parent that a public school district in Michigan had distributed “litter boxes on school grounds for students who identify as furries to use the bathroom.”
MDP Chair Lavora Barnes made the following statement:
“Is it still accurate to call something a dog whistle as it’s actively shattering your eardrums? Meshawn Maddock’s racism was on full display with this horrendous comment about Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist, and it adds to the already miles-long list of her actions that the MIGOP and Republican elected officials and candidates continue to endorse with their silence. This is a party that proudly pursues dangerous and divisive policies that grant differing access to freedom for all Michiganders by design. That’s why we need to fight to stand up for all Michiganders, including protecting and expanding voting rights.”
