The coming shakeup of the RNC leadership could bring the modernization many Republicans expected and help former president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel announced on Monday that she will step down from her role on March 8.
“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,” Ms. McDaniel said in a statement. “I remain committed to winning back the White House and electing Republicans up and down the ballot in November.”
In addition to Ms. McDaniel, RNC co-chair Drew McKissick said he would also leave.
Ms. McDaniel has been the RNC chair since 2017.
She was the committee’s longest-serving leader since the Civil War.
Former President Donald Trump—who is undoubtedly the leader of the Republican Party—endorsed North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley after Ms. McDaniel’s resignation was widely reported.
“I think my friend Michael Whatley should be the RNC’s next leader. Michael has been with me from the beginning, has done a great job in his home state of North Carolina, and is committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our election so it can’t be stolen,” Mr. Trump said in a statement on February 12.
The former president also endorsed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to be the RNC co-chair.
Ms. Trump said later in an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times that she will launch the largest-ever legal ballot harvesting operation if she’s elected.
“We need to have the biggest legal ballot harvesting operation this country has ever seen,” she said. “It feels, for a long time, like the Democrats have been playing chess and we’ve been playing checkers,” she said.
Her goal is for the Republican Party “to be the opposite, to be steps ahead of them, and on our toes, and ahead of the game, and facing forward the whole time.”
Besides Mr. Whatley and Ms. Trump, the former president also endorsed Chris LaCivita as the chief operating officer of RNC.
Mr. LaCivita is a senior adviser to Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign.
He “will manage the RNC’s day-to-day operations so it will become a fighting machine for 2024 and use all the tools available to win for the American people,” Mr. Trump said.
