GOP Political Operatives Forced To Resign Senate Posts

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/12/2025) Two key Republican Senate staffers resigned their positions late last week as opposed to divesting themselves from politically-geared companies they've been involved in for years.

Meghan Reckling quit her position as Sen. Lana Theis (R-Brighton)'s chief of staff and Jeff Wiggins as Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton)'s press secretary for their involvement in a suite of companies designed to assist Republicans running for public office with signature collection, communications, consulting and other services.

Senate employment rules require that all outside employment receive Senate Majority Leader office approval and not include activities that are in conflict with the state Senate. Reckling and Wiggins have essentially run Victory Field Operations, RW Strategies and Victory Graphics and Consulting since 2023.

Reckling started Victory Graphics and Consulting in 2016 and launched a fourth company, MMason Designs, in 2013.

Of the companies, Victory Field Operations is the main business. According to Bureau of Elections reports, it earned $523,000 in reportable hard-money receipts this year from the gubernatorial campaigns of John James (R-Shelby Township) and Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton), the Americans for Citizens Voting ballot proposal and Mission Michigan, the Dan and Pamela DeVos-funded SuperPAC, which has $5.1 million in the bank to assist James' gubernatorial ambitions.

Reckling had her supplemental employment paperwork approved by former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, a Republican, but had not gone through the entire process with now-Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), a Democrat. Wiggins had had his side-hustles approved by Brinks but got swept into a second look for reasons not fully understood.

Reckling had been more publicly visible with the success of Victory Field Operations in recent months, contributing as a MIRS Monday pundit a few times, for example. While nobody from the Senate would confirm exactly what went down, the understanding of those involved was that Reckling and Wiggins were too public-facing in their roles, and Democrat leadership didn't like that a Senate salary was helping keep afloat political activities that benefited a specific party or candidates.

“If that's the case,” Reckling said, “I sleep well at night because I know, at the end of the day, I'm OK with the decisions I had to make. I guess it'll give me more time to make sure that Senate Republicans win back the majority in 2026.”

Wiggins quickly jumped to House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township)'s shop to fill the vacant press secretary job. Prior to his work for the Senate Republicans, Wiggins was the state director for the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).

Reckling had been with Theis since 2015, former state Rep. Bill Rogers since 2010 and former Rep. Daniel Acciavatti since 2004. The former Livingston County Republican Party chair is also a Slugnuts softball alum.

Sen. Lana Theis (R-Brighton) said most of her colleagues who had read news of the staffing changes from The Detroit News story on the development said they were sorry to see how things went down.

Theis said nearly every Senate staffer engages in some level of campaign work to prevent their boss from landing in the minority. As long as the activity isn't happening on state time or using state of Michigan property, campaign work among staffers is almost considered part of the job.

Theis said nobody asked her if Reckling was not fulfilling her job as her chief of staff, or if she was putting in a sufficient number of hours of state work. The dismissal of the “most competent” legislative employee she's ever had seemed arbitrary and silly to Theis.

“I've got some terrific colleagues,” she said. “Everyone was shocked. Nearly everybody came up and told me, 'I'm so sorry this happened to you. This is so wrong.'

“God help us if this is the template for what we're going to do moving forward.”

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