With less than a week to go before 2,000-plus delegates meet to choose a new Republican state chair, signs are that the successor to outgoing Chair Pete Hoekstra will also be a conservative and someone committed to ending the party's debt and axing a controversial consultant.

The growing national attention on who sits at the helm of the Michigan Republican Party is based in large part on the historic importance of the state in 2026: for the first time, both the governorship and U.S. Senate seat will be open (Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is termed out and Sen. Gary Peters is retiring; both are Democrats).

Moreover, having captured control of the state House of Representatives last fall, Republicans are within one seat of a tie in the 38 member Senate and could easily win control of the chamber in '26.

Three candidates are vying to lead the state party: Joe Cella, who had served as President Trump's ambassador to Fiji and is considered a top fund-raiser; state Sen. Jim Runestad of Oakland County, by far one of the most conservative members of the state legislature; and Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the state Republican Party and one of Trump's earliest and most fervent backers in Michigan.

Under state party rules, the top two vote-getters on the convention's first ballot will compete in a run-off on the second.

Cella, 55, is considered a prolific fund-raiser. He was a pivotal figure in launching the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast more than two decades ago and helped forge the Ave Maria List to help conservative Catholic causes.

Opponents of Cella like to remind conventioneers that he began 2016 as a "Never Trumper" and joined fellow Catholic Republicans with a strongly-worded statement about Trump, denouncing his "vulgarity" and calling him "manifestly unfit" to be president. But Cella later had what he called a "sincere change of heart" because of Trump's vow to appoint federal judges in the mold of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He soon helped organize "Catholics for Trump."

"And I'm the only one in this race Donald Trump appointed to anything," Cella told us, pointing to his ambassadorial posting in Trump's first term.

Among prominent conservatives weighing in for Cella are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Michigan Gov. John Engler, and Ingham County GOP Chair Norm Shinkle.

Oakland County's Runestad, 66, points out that "I've done more TV and radio than my two opponents [for chair] combined." He freely takes on such established liberal Democrats as state Attorney General Dana Nessel and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is planning a U.S. Senate race next year.

"And more often than not, I have to debate the moderators as well," Runestad told Newsmax.

Runestad's theme is to be a media-savvy "attack animal" who will carry the conservative message to the media.

Maddock, whose husband is a state representative, believes there is a new class of Republicans who, in her words, "wake up as if every morning was Christmas because of all the things the president is doing. There is a renewed passion in the party and the people who are feeling it, I have worked with for years."

She proudly recalled her grass-roots history, as a Trump delegate to three national conventions and an early leader in Women For Trump. Maddock was also in the forefront of the Trump team's charges of fraud and vote-stealing in Michigan in 2020.

Not on the ballot but certainly a factor in the chair's race is controversial political consultant John Yob. Having made a reputation in 2010 by running the first campaign of former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder (who backed Joe Biden over Trump in 2020), Yob has a been fixtures in Michigan campaigns for over a decade, and his firm has been well-paid by the state party. More than a few Republicans who spoke to us grumble that while Yob was being faithfully paid, the state party sunk into a six-figure debt.

Cella and Rundestad told us without hesitation that the Michigan GOP would no longer do business with Yob if they become chairs. Mishawn said she felt such a promise was "disingenuous," that if she becomes chair, "I won't have a general consultant but I will obviously have to work with campaign consultants in races next year, and if [Yob] is the consultant for a nominee for governor or senator, yes, I would work with him as well."

No Republican who spoke to Newsmax is betting on who will win the chairmanship this weekend. But it is clear that the outcome and the direction the party takes will be watched by pundits and pols in and out of Michigan.