(DCWatchdog.com) – Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has declared himself against the reelection of current Republican National Committee leader Ronna McDaniel, a Trump ally, and has endorsed challenger Harmeet Dhillon.
The members of the Republican National Committee are electing its new chair in a secret ballot on Friday. Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, is also running for the top job.
McDaniel, the niece of U.S. Senator Mitt Romney, has chaired the RNC since 2017 and is presently seeking a second five-year term. A staunch loyalist of former President Donald Trump, she has been blamed by critics for the GOP’s worse-than-expected performance in the 2022 midterm elections.
“I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC,” DeSantis said on Florida’s Voice, as cited by Newsmax.
Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative group Turning Point USA, interviewed him.
“I do think we need some fresh thinking. And practically, you need grassroots Republicans to power this organization with volunteering and donations, and I think it’s going to be very difficult to energize people to want to give money and volunteer their time with the RNC if they don’t change direction,” Florida’s governor elaborated.
Former President Donald Trump announced his 2024 White House candidacy in November. Even though he has never even hinted at running for president in 2024, DeSantis is the only potential Trump rival who polls in the double digits.
Florida’s governor explained some of the reasons he was endorsing Harmeet Dhillon, an Indian-born conservative lawyer and former Trump campaign adviser, for Ronna McDaniel’s job as RNC chair.
“I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC out of D.C. Why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America? It’s more Democrat than San Francisco is,” DeSantis said.
He was referring to a letter Dhillon sent to the members of the Republican National Committee calling for setting up regional officers and retaining a headquarters in the nation’s capital.
DeSantis joined McDaniel’s critics for the poorer-than-expected GOP performance in the November midterms.
“We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row: ’18, ’20, and ’22. And I would say of all three of those, ’22 was probably the worst,” he said.
“Given the political environment of a very unpopular president in Biden, huge majorities of the people think the country is going in the wrong direction — that is an environment that’s tailor-made to make big gains in the House and the Senate and in state houses all across the country. And yet that didn’t happen,” the Florida governor elaborated.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for "new blood" at the Republican National Committee and threw his support behind Harmeet Dhillon in her bid to take the chairmanship. https://t.co/khchm7d2tu pic.twitter.com/Ibt3kowKn9
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) January 26, 2023
