There’s currently a three-way battle going on for the RNC Chair.
One of the players is the current occupant, Ronna McDaniel. Under her “leadership,” Republicans have gotten hammered in elections but have managed to bring in wads of cash from big money donors. Another player is Harmeet Dhillon, who is promising to bring new blood and new ideas to the RNC, but is part of much the same party machine as other apparatchiks. And, finally, is MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who wants to take the party on a MAGA path and reject the Conservative, Inc. wing of the party entirely.
So, Dhillon is something of a middle ground between the populist wave and party stability. With that in mind, it’s no real surprise that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is excellent at collecting public support while never getting too close to the edge, strongly hinted that he’s in favor of Dhillon being the new RNC Chair.
Governor DeSantis dropped that support for Dhillon while on the Charlie Kirk Show, saying “We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row, ‘18, ‘20, and ‘22, and I would say of all of those, ‘22 was probably the worst given the political environment of a very unpopular President Biden — huge majorities of the people think the country’s going in the wrong direction. That is an environment that’s tailormade to make big gains in the House, in the Senate, in the state houses all across the country, and yet, that didn’t happen.”
Continuing, he added “In fact, we even lost ground in the U.S. Senate. I think we need a change. I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC out of D.C.”
DeSantis also question why the RNC is headquartered in such a liberal city, saying “Why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America? It’s more Democrat than San Francisco is! So, I think you get it in real parts of the country, you attract people who want to live in those parts of the country, not D.C. insiders. But I do think we need some fresh thinking.”
Then, returning to his support for Dhillon over McDaniel, he made the observation that rallying support for the party will be difficult if people don’t see a change in direction from the leadership, particularly after disappointing election cycles, saying:
Just practically speaking, you need grassroots Republicans to power this organization with volunteering and donations. I think it’s going to be very difficult to energize people to want to give money, to want to volunteer their time with the RNC, if they don’t see a change in direction.
Many GOP voters, let down by the RNC and the candidates it tends to support, feel much the same way about the necessity of a change in direction.
Watch DeSantis discuss the RNC Chair position with Charlie Kirk here:
🚨BREAKING: Gov. DeSantis calls for Change at the RNC🚨
"We've had 3 substandard election cycles in a row, '18, '20, and '22, and I'd say '22 was the worst…I think we need a change. I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC. I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said…" pic.twitter.com/dayeCSVtJ0
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 26, 2023
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1