Inside the ugly fight to become the next Republican chair
FILE – Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel speaks to a packed room at the opening of the RNC’s new Hispanic Community Center in Suwanee, Ga., June 29, 2022. A decade after its last election autopsy, the Republican National Committee is moving forward with a new post-election audit designed to examine the GOP’s underwhelming performance in the recent midterms and the party’s broader struggles in the years since former President Donald Trump took power. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)
AP
NEW YORK
Struggling to unify after another disappointing election, the Republican National Committee is consumed by an increasingly nasty leadership fight as the GOP navigates its delicate relationship with former President Donald Trump.
With a vote for RNC chair not scheduled until late January, the public feud may get worse before it gets better.
“It’ll be ugly as hell for a while,” says longtime RNC member Ron Kaufman.
The family fight to lead the party has been largely overshadowed for national attention by the equally contentious struggle to become the new Republican House Speaker, with that election set for the first week in January. But both represent critical selections as the GOP works to overcome six years of electoral underperformance heading into another presidential election.
As the Republicans’ national political arm, the RNC will raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars in building or rebuilding the party’s framework, in campaign messaging and in the year-long presidential nomination process that will begin in earnest before long.
Ronna McDaniel, Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the committee and the niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, is running for a fourth consecutive term. But the 49-year-old is facing a rising wave of discontent from Trump’s “MAGA” movement, even as the former president stays silent — at least, for now.
In an interview, McDaniel said she notified Trump of her intention to seek another term but did not explicitly ask for his support. She said she “didn’t think it would be appropriate to be asking for any endorsements” given that party rules require the RNC to remain neutral in the next presidential primary.
McDaniel demurred when asked whether she wanted Trump’s support.
“I think the most important support right now is the members,” she said. “These are leaders in the party, the grassroots leaders.”
California attorney Harmeet Dhillon has emerged as the MAGA favorite to challenge McDaniel, who secured commitments from more than 100 of the RNC’s 168 voting members earlier…
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