McDaniel to step down as RNC chair March 8 as Trump marches toward nomination

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in March that the Republican National Committee (RNC) is considering a shake-up of its leadership as former President Trump approaches the party’s presidential nomination. He announced early Monday that he would step down from his position on the 8th.

“It has been the honor and privilege of my life to elect the Republican Party and grow the party for seven years as Chairman of the Republican National Committee,” McDaniel said in a statement.

“I have decided to step down to allow candidates to choose their favorite chair at spring training in Houston on March 8th,” she continued. “Historically, the RNC has changed as candidates have been chosen, and it was my intention to honor that tradition.”

McDaniel’s decision was not unexpected. He was reportedly planning to resign after the South Carolina primary, and President Trump has already endorsed his potential successor, RNC General Counsel Michael Whatley.

RNC Co-Chairman Drew McKissick also said in a statement Monday that he will resign in March. President Trump has endorsed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to be his next co-chair.

“I look forward to working with the RNC and President Trump’s team to secure victory this November by retaking the White House and the Senate and maintaining our majority in the House of Representatives,” McKissick said in a statement. .

McDaniel on Monday cited the Republican retaking of the House in 2022, the creation of the Office of Election Integrity and the early voting push for Republicans as successes during his nearly seven years in office.

“Chairman McDaniel has led our party with integrity and vision and is a true friend to me and the North Carolina Republican Party,” Whatley said in a statement Monday. “Her leadership in election integrity, minority outreach, voter contact and more will be felt not only in the 2024 election, but in elections to come.”

She first became RNC chair in 2017 with President Trump’s support and was reelected four times, including in a contested election in 2023. But her critics point to her lack of electoral success and question her party’s spending. Relations with Trump were also strained after the former president pressured the RNC to cancel the primary debate and instead endorse Trump.

Trump is comfortably winning Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, and is leading in other upcoming primary state polls over his only remaining rival, Nikki Haley. Haley has vowed to remain in the race at least through Super Tuesday. . The Trump campaign expects Trump to secure the number of delegates needed to win the Republican nomination by March 19 at the latest, setting up a rematch with President Biden.

Whatley and Lara Trump are expected to be elected as the new chair and co-chair in the coming weeks, and RNC members typically show deference to presumptive presidential candidates to establish their own leadership. . Trump’s top adviser, Chris Lacivita, will also move to the RNC and oversee day-to-day operations.

The big question going forward is whether the party will pay Trump’s legal costs. The former president faces 91 felony charges in four separate investigations and was recently ordered to pay $355 million by a New York judge in a civil fraud case.

The Trump campaign has spent millions of dollars on legal fees over the past year, putting it at a significant financial disadvantage compared to the Biden campaign.

Lacivita reported in recent days that the campaign has said it will not ask the RNC to pay for Trump’s legal costs. But skeptics say that if the two sides start raising money together, the money could end up being used for legal costs anyway.

LaCivita also criticized RNC members who have resisted calls to make Trump the presumptive nominee before he garners the delegates he needs, saying it would hinder the party’s efforts to win the general election. They argue that this will become the case and are strongly opposed to it.

“The primaries are over and it is the RNC’s sole responsibility to defeat Joe Biden and take back the White House,” Lacivita said in a statement Saturday. “Efforts to delay it will aid Joe Biden’s destruction of our country. Republicans cannot stand by and tolerate this.”