New RNC memo gives details of merger with Trump campaign
By Daniel Strauss and Brian Rokus, CNN
(CNN) — Republican National Committee members have received a three-page memo from Chairman Michael Whatley announcing and explaining various aspects of the RNC’s merger with the Trump campaign.
The memo arrives days after former President Donald Trump clinched the GOP nomination and nearly a week after Donald Trump’s handpicked team took the reins.
“As is tradition and governed by applicable law, the RNC is merging operations with the Trump campaign. We are now a united operation, and a united front,” Whatley wrote.
Whatley and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, were elected to succeed the outgoing chair and co-chair without any challengers on March 8. The memo highlights the committee’s key priorities, including a focus on claims of election fraud.
“Our election integrity priorities this cycle will include a broader effort over the coming months to challenge voter identification and signature verification rules which were put into place for the 2020 election. The RNC’s new posture as it relates to this litigation will be an aggressive, proactive effort to ensure that it will be easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Whatley wrote.
Trump himself was drawn to backing Whatley, the former North Carolina Republican Party chairman, in part because of his work and focus on claims of election fraud, CNN previously reported.
The memo also announces the hires Whatley has made, including a slate of new lawyers who will focus on election fraud claims. It comes days after the RNC began laying off dozens of staffers. The cuts, which included top officials in communications, the political department and the data team, went beyond the norm and underscored the committee’s lackluster fundraising.
Whatley’s memo also said the RNC is planning to keep its community centers and the Bank Your Vote program.
The RNC will “be focused on organizing in communities that are not traditionally Republican, to highlight the failed policies of the Biden administration. Despite what you may have heard, we are not closing community centers. We are aggressively pursuing programs to grow our base and maximize opportunities to engage with Americans, utilizing all existing tools for our voters to cast ballots,” Whatley wrote.
Whatley also said the RNC has completed a joint fundraising agreement with the Trump campaign and has brought in a data liaison to work with other Republican committees and state parties.
“Lara Trump, our great RNC Co-Chair, and I have no illusions about the road ahead. We must work tirelessly every day. Within the organization, we need to make sure that every penny of every dollar is spent towards one thing: winning. Winning House seats, winning Senate seats, and winning the Presidency,” Whatley wrote.
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Kristen Holmes and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
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