DANA POINT, California (AP) – Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel is fighting for reelection in a bitter leadership dispute that is testing former President Donald Trump’s grip on his own “Make America Great Again” movement.
The high-profile contest to lead the GOP through the 2024 presidential election will be decided Friday afternoon in a secret ballot at the committee’s winter meeting in Southern California.
The former president personally supported McDaniel, who was chosen for the job after his victory in 2016. But a rebel faction within the MAGA movement itself has rallied behind his challenger, Trump lawyer Harmeet Dhillon.
Dhillon has mounted an aggressive challenge against McDaniel that includes allegations of chronic mismanagement, mismanagement, and even religious bigotry against Dhillon’s Sikh faith — all claims that McDaniel denies. Above all, the case against McDaniel, the nephew of Utah Senator Mitt Romney, has focused on the frustration of conservatives with repeated election losses on her watch.
The election comes as the Republican Party struggles to unify behind a message or messenger as the 2024 presidential season begins. The same division fueled the House GOP’s one-day battle to elect a House speaker earlier in the month. And on Friday, the same forces threatened to derail McDaniel’s bid to become the RNC’s longest-serving seat since the Civil War.
Ahead of Friday’s vote, Dhillon cited the Republican language of overwhelming desire for change and threatened political retribution, for members of the RNC who dared to support McDaniel’s reelection.
“Heeding the will of the voters in your state is a good way to avoid re-election,” Dhillon told The Associated Press.
AP Photo/Chris O’Meara, File
McDaniel fought MAGA’s frustrations even as Trump sent lieutenants to California in the days leading up to the election to help boost McDaniel. The former president’s senior adviser Susie Wiles was among Trump’s allies who arranged private conversations with members of the RNC on Thursday.
Trump avoided making a public endorsement only at McDaniel’s request, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation. Tim McDaniel is confident he will win without public support, allowing him to maintain a sense of neutrality going into the 2024 presidential primary season.
Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, a former RNC chair, was among those who gathered at the Waldorf Astoria this week to lobby for McDaniel.
“Looks like Ronna is in very good shape to get reelected,” Priebus said.
Meanwhile, Dhillon’s allies are also hard at work.
Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was on site to lobby RNC members on Dhillon’s behalf. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, considered the top 2024 presidential prospect, also spoke out against McDaniel on the eve of the vote.
“I think we need a change. We need to get some new blood at the RNC,” DeSantis said in an interview with Florida Voice, citing three “consecutive substandard election cycles” under McDaniel’s leadership.
The next RNC chair will lead the committee through the 2024 presidential election.
The RNC controls much of the presidential nominating process — including the debates and voting calendar — while directing the GOP’s fundraising efforts and the sprawling national infrastructure designed to elect the next Republican president.
According to its rules, the RNC must remain neutral in the presidential primary. Trump is the only GOP candidate announced so far, but other high-profile contenders are expected soon.
Dhillon, whose law firm earned more than $400,000 representing Trump and his political organization through the 2022 midterms, has pledged to leave his law practice if elected. The California attorney also vowed to remain independent in the 2024 Republican primary if he wins.
Also in the race is MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist who has garnered enough support to qualify.
Lindell has endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign and said he won’t change his mind if the longshot bid is successful on Friday.
“I have never endorsed Donald Trump,” Lindell said. “I never moved from that place.”