OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel may be in a dogfight to keep her post as dissatisfaction with her and other Republican leaders grows following a dismal party showing during the midterms.
On Tuesday, Just the News reported that conservative lawyer Harmeet Dhillon has picked up some key support as she moves to unseat McDaniel, noting that, over the weekend, RNC member Morton Blackwell, founder of the conservative training group The Leadership Institute, has thrown his support behind her.
“She has a long and successful record as a leader for conservative principles at the state and national levels,” said Blackwell, a Virginia committee member.
The outlet noted further: “Most committee members have already pledged their support for a fourth term for McDaniel. But Republicans have underperformed in the past three election cycles after McDaniel become the RNC leader in 2017, which is raising concerns about reelecting her. Several state RNC groups have expressed frustration with the RNC under McDaniel, who was President Trump’s pick after getting elected in 2016. The Texas Republican Party recently joined the Arizona Republican Party in expressing no confidence in McDaniel and calling for new leadership.”
“Clearly, the grassroots think it’s time for a change,” the Arizona GOP noted in a tweet.
Glad to see @TexasGOP join the team and call for new leadership at the RNC!
Clearly, the grassroots think it's time for a change. https://t.co/idoX4GgfeW
— Republican Party of Arizona (@AZGOP) December 10, 2022
Meanwhile, Just the News added, “Tennessee RNC Committeewoman Beth Campbell posted Saturday on Twitter that she discussed the RNC elections with committee member Oscar Brock and found ‘overwhelming support for Leadership change [in] the RNC.'”
RNC Committeewoman Beth Campbell and RNC Committeeman Oscar Brock addressed the RNC elections, which will be held in January, at the TN Republican Party Executive Committee today. There is overwhelming support for Leadership change on the RNC.
— Beth Campbell (@bcgop21) December 11, 2022
Dhillon announced her candidacy for the RNC chair last week.
“After three successive terms of underwhelming results at the polls for the GOP, I feel that we owe it to our voters to have a serious debate about the leadership of the party and what we must change to actually win in 2024,” she said.
“Republicans are tired of losing, and I think that that we really need to radically reshape our leadership in order to win,” Dhillon told Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week during an appearance.
“We can’t keep running elections like we did in the ’90s and the 2000s, and we really have to modernize to compete with the Democrats dollar for dollar in the ways they fundraise, the way they deliver their ballots to the ballot boxes,” she added, per The Hill.
In addition, she told the host that the party must revamp messaging to be “fresh and positive and not just reactive to news cycles and what the Democrats are doing.”
The Hill noted further: “Dhillon’s challenge to McDaniel, who has served in the role since January 2017 after Reince Priebus left the position to become Trump’s first White House chief of staff, comes as Republicans continue to point fingers over who is to blame for what some have called an underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections, in which Democrats retained a narrow majority in the Senate and Republicans came away with a House majority that was far slimmer than forecasted.”
The outlet noted that 107 RNC committee members have already endorsed her for reelection, which is more than she needs.
“Ronna McDaniel has grown our Party from the grassroots up: from building a permanent national ground game and establishing a year-round Election Integrity operation to expanding minority outreach and transferring more funds than ever to all 56 states and territories,” North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.
“I am proud to join the nearly two-thirds of RNC members in endorsing her re-election and I look forward to working alongside her to strengthen our Party and country for the next two years,” he noted further.
That said, Republican candidates, collectively, did manage to win votes nationwide, edging Democrats by around four percentage points.
“If they do ultimately win by around three or four points, it would mean Republicans improved on their margin from the 2020 election by around six or seven points, but they were only able to add about 2 percent of seats, as the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman notes,” the Washington Post reported.
