The Republican National Committee will elect a leader charged with, among other things, coordinating the party’s message heading into a presidential election. Jill Colvin
Fractures and infighting within the GOP will be on full display Friday as members of the Republican National Committee cast their votes to elect a leader that will carry the organization – and, by extension, the party – through the upcoming presidential election.
The vote, which will take place at the RNC’s winter meeting in Dana Point, California, will mark the culmination of a contentious and bitter race that has seen the current, three-term chairwoman Ronna McDaniel fight for her position for the first time since her initial election. It comes just months after a disappointing midterm election for the GOP that some members have laid at McDaniel’s feet and as the party finds itself at an inflection point heading into the 2024 election season.
Challenging McDaniel is Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer who has earned the support of those itching for a leadership change, including the party’s more right-wing constituents and those who have most fully embraced former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. Dhillon has tapped surrogates including Keri Lake – a failed GOP candidate for governor in Arizona known for her inflammatory statements – to advocate for her.
Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a staunch proponent of the conspiracy that the 2020 election was rigged, is also a candidate, though his bid is not expected to be serious.
Trump will loom large over the proceedings Friday, though the contest is a rare dispute within the party that will not hinge solely on electors’ enthusiasm – or lack thereof – for the former president, who in November announced his 2024 bid for the White House.
Rather, the fault lines are most visible between rank-and-file Republicans, regardless of their support from Trump, and those in the MAGA wing of the party, where Trump’s ideology and political style has ballooned into something greater than and, in some cases, divorced from the man himself.
Both McDaniel and Dhillon have deep ties to Trump, something that has in particular been an issue for McDaniel as many Republicans openly reevaluate Trump’s role in the GOP heading into the 2024 race in the wake of the midterms.
Trump in 2016 tapped McDaniel to lead the RNC, a role that calls for organizing fundraising, coordinating the party’s message at a national level and arbitrating internal disputes, among other things. He has in general been loyal to her – something that has gone both ways. McDaniel defended Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and more recently has avoided explicitly placing blame at his feet for Republicans’ deeply underwhelming midterm performance.
McDaniel is facing headwinds from both members who are concerned that she is too loyal to Trump and those firmly in the MAGA camp. She has defended herself against criticisms over recent election failures and has also reportedly told members that she is in the best possible position to deter Trump from launching a third-party bid for the White House if he were not to win the Republican nomination.
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Dhillon, too, has close connections with Trump. The law firm she founded represented Trump during legal proceedings involving adult film star Stormy Daniels as well as during the House panel investigation into the insurrection. Still, she has avoided close associations with the former president and positioned herself as the outsider to McDaniel’s establishment – a message that resonates with those who are committed to the “drain the swamp” mindset first started by Trump.
Both women have pledged to be neutral during the Republican primaries, and Trump has avoided weighing in on the contest, though that has reportedly been at McDaniel’s request. McDaniel’s team is stacked with former Trump aides, and other Trump allies have publicly endorsed her, including figures like Newt Gingrich.
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday endorsed Dhillon in a surprise move that pitted him more deeply against Trump. DeSantis cruised to a blowout reelection win in November and is widely considered a 2024 front-runner for the presidential nomination, despite the fact that he has not officially announced his plans to seek the position. Trump has targeted DeSantis online as the governor has continued to build his national profile, garnering the rapt attention of Republicans who are skeptical of Trump’s viability as a 2024 candidate and leader of the party.
“We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row: ’18, ’20 and ’22. And I would say, of all three – of those – ’22 was probably the worst, given the political environment of a very unpopular president in Biden,” DeSantis said in an interview Thursday with conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. “I think we need a change, and I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. … I think it’s going to be very difficult to energize people to want to give money, to want to volunteer their time at the RNC, if they don’t see a change in direction.”
The RNC’s 168 voting members from all 50 states and U.S. territories will decide the new chairperson in a secret ballot process. The winner must net a majority of the votes. If no candidate wins a majority of the votes, voting will proceed to a new round – a process that will continue until one person wins. In 2011, for example, Reince Priebus was elected chairman after seven rounds of voting.
The RNC chairperson is a hugely influential position, responsible for coordinating election efforts nationwide and fundraising, as well as generally guiding and shaping the party.
As 2024 looms and the GOP prepares to grapple with the future direction of the party, Friday’s election could well foreshadow what is to come.
Source: US News
