The Republican National Committee (RNC) formally voted on Friday to make Michael Whatley and Lara Trump its new chair and co-chair, respectively, with former President Trump’s leadership of the RNC setting its sights on November. The reconstruction of the company was firmly established.
RNC officials gathered in Houston for the group’s leadership meeting and agreed to replace chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who resigned over disagreements with President Trump during the primary process.
Whatley vowed to RNC members that the organization will be “laser-like focused on getting out the vote and protecting the ballot.”
“In eight months, we will decide the fate of not just the United States, but the entire world,” he said. “And this organization, the RNC, will continue to work tirelessly every day to elect our candidate, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States, flip the Senate, and expand our majority in Congress. He will be the vanguard of the movement,” the House of Representatives. ”
Whatley, who served as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and general counsel for the RNC, is a Trump supporter who has echoed the former president’s rhetoric about “election integrity” in the wake of the 2020 election. has falsely claimed that it was fraudulently stolen. .
Whatley, who appeared on a Conservative Political Action Conference panel discussion on “Election Protection” in 2021, detailed efforts to hire hundreds of lawyers and volunteer poll watchers in North Carolina. He also expressed skepticism about mail-in and absentee voting unless combined with voter ID requirements.
President Trump is likely to pressure the RNC to file a legal challenge if the November election does not go his way, as he did in 2020.
Lara Trump will serve as co-chair, and the main focus will be on fundraising. The RNC has lagged far behind Democrats in raising cash over the past year, setting it back heading into a long and painful general election campaign.
Lara met with RNC committee members on Friday and said the RNC had already received a $100,000 check, pointing to the importance of fundraising and encouraging early voting, which the Republican Party has at times struggled to rally. did.
“We have to play the game a little differently. We have to encourage people to vote early and things like that,” she said.
The former president’s daughter-in-law told Newsmax last month that she would spend “every penny” to ensure Trump’s election.
Trump ran smoothly in the Republican primary, winning all but two races leading up to Super Tuesday. He is expected to cross the delegate threshold this month to become the presumptive nominee, formally setting up a rematch with President Biden.
It is common for candidates to merge with party organizations after they are nominated, and if Trump wins the required number of delegates, the Trump campaign and RNC will jointly raise funds and share data. and other resources.
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 by a New York judge to pay $355 million 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 President Biden’s campaign.
Chris Lacivita, a top Trump campaign adviser who has moved to the RNC to oversee day-to-day operations, has previously dismissed the idea that the party would pay for the lawsuit.
“The fact of the matter is that not a penny is in the RNC’s coffers, and what’s more, campaign funds have gone or will go toward paying legal fees,” Lacivita said in an AP statement. told the news agency.
Some members of the RNC have expressed concern about the possibility that the party will foot the bill for Trump’s lawsuits. Mississippi Commissioner Henry Barber proposed a nonbinding resolution that would prevent RNC funds from being used for Trump’s legal bills, but it did not receive enough support.
Updated: 12:43 PM ET
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