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Republicans are battling over the future of the GOP after last month's lackluster results in the midterms. While some have blamed former President Donald Trump for his choice of endorsed candidates and urged the party to move away from him, his allies have argued the opposite and are hoping to take over the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Three Republicans with ties to Trump are preparing or considering a challenge to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who has signaled her intention to run for re-election. The next chair will lead the committee through the 2024 presidential election.
Last month's midterms may have prompted a wave of GOP criticism of Trump, but the faultfinding did little to stop him from announcing early his third bid for the White House, which ups the ante over who will head the RNC while he is pursuing the party's nomination.
Although McDaniel had been Trump's pick to lead the RNC after the 2016 presidential election, the former president and those close to him have recently been critical of the chairwoman.
"McCarthy. McConnell. McDaniel. McFailure," GOP Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted last month, implying that the RNC chairwoman, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were to blame for the lack of a "red wave" in the midterms.
On Monday, Politico reported that Harmeet Dhillon, an RNC member and lawyer whose firm represents Trump, is planning to make a formal bid for the RNC job within the next few days.
"After three successive terms of underwhelming results at the polls for the GOP, all the while with leaders congratulating ourselves for outstanding performance, 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," Dhillon said in a statement.
An official bid for the position would make Dhillon a second Trump ally aiming to unseat McDaniel. Last week, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is known for promoting Trump's election denial claims, announced that he was "100 percent" running for the post.
Appearing on Steve Bannon's podcast, Lindell said that a top RNC donor told him that "everybody wants [him] to be head of the RNC, some of them just don't know it yet."
McDaniel, who has held the post since 2017, could also see a challenge from Representative Lee Zeldin, whose stronger than expected performance last month in the New York governor's race, which he lost to incumbent Kathy Hochul, has boosted his national profile. Zeldin, another Trump ally, has yet to declare his candidacy but has said he's considering a run to lead the RNC.
Committee members will vote on the chairmanship during the RNC's annual winter meeting in late January. As of Monday, McDaniel had received an endorsement from the majority of the RNC's members, 107 out of 168. She needs a simple majority, or 85 votes, to win. If reelected, she would be the longest-serving RNC chair in more than a century.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the RNC.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more