Ronna McDaniel to step down as RNC chair in March
By Kaitlan Collins, Daniel Strauss and Avery Lotz, CNN
(CNN) — Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel will officially step down from her position on March 8, days after Super Tuesday.
“I have decided to step aside at our Spring Training on March 8 in Houston to allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing. The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition. I remain committed to winning back the White House and electing Republicans up and down the ballot in November,” McDaniel said in a statement shared with CNN.
McDaniel’s announcement is the latest progression in a changing of the guard at the RNC. Shortly after McDaniel’s announcement, South Carolina GOP co-chair, Drew McKissick, announced in a separate statement that he would step down as RNC co-chair. Former President Donald Trump, in his speech Saturday celebrating his South Carolina primary win, suggested that he would like to see former Trump adviser official Kellyanne Conway to join the staff at the RNC, though the longtime Trump ally told Fox News that such an invitation was “news to me.”
CNN reported earlier this month that McDaniel offered to leave her position following the South Carolina primary. Her departure comes amid a period of rising tensions between Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, and the RNC.
Following McDaniel’s offer to resign from her position, the former president endorsed North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley to succeed her and backed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair. Whatley currently serves as the committee’s counsel.
It’s not unusual for a national committee to experience senior staff changes when the party has picked a new presidential nominee in an election year, but Trump has not officially clinched the number of delegates required to be the nominee and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is still running against him in the primary. His endorsement carries significant weight in the party making Whatley the heavy favorite when the committee votes on a new chair.
In the past few days, a pair of RNC resolutions began circulating that would require the committee to stay neutral until a 2024 GOP presidential candidate had gotten the required number of delegates to be the official nominee. It’s unclear how much support those resolutions, offered by RNC committeeman Henry Barbour, has among rank-and-file committeemen.
McDaniel, one of the longest-serving RNC chairs in modern history. She was elected to the post after serving as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, with Trump’s support. But recently, Trump’s view of McDaniel has soured. Trump and his team have been disappointed with the RNC’s finances as the committee is currently experiencing one of its most anemic years of fundraising in the last decade. The former president has also felt that the RNC under McDaniel’s leadership could and should have done more to fight for his candidacy in the 2020 election, including retaining better lawyers to push the former president’s false claims of rampant voter fraud.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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