A half-dozen Republican National Committee members tell National Review that they expect to formally elect a new party leadership team during the RNC’s upcoming spring meeting in Houston, the weekend of March 7. They caution, though, that no formal timeline has been set for the election to succeed four-term GOP chair Ronna McDaniel.
The prevailing expectation of a spring leadership shakeup comes as the RNC’s 168 members are preparing for a merger of sorts between the RNC and the Trump campaign before the former president has formally locked up the 2024 GOP nomination. Earlier this month, the New York Times first reported that McDaniel told the former president she will step down from her post shortly after the South Carolina primary this weekend, where polls suggest Trump will trounce his lone GOP rival, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
The RNC spokesman Keith Schipper responded to reports earlier this month of McDaniel’s expected departure by hinting, while keeping things vague, that a change in leadership is on the horizon: “Nothing has changed. This will be decided after South Carolina.”
In addition to the uncertain timeline, it’s unclear as of this week whether the race to succeed her will be bitterly contested, given the impropriety of openly campaigning for the role while she’s still in it. But Trump has already waded in with his preferred picks by endorsing Michael Whatley, RNC general counsel and North Carolina GOP chair, to succeed her, and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to serve as co-chair. (The party’s rules require there to be a male and female co-chair.) Trump also endorsed his own campaign adviser, Chris LaCivita to serve as the RNC’s chief operating officer.
And although multiple RNC members say the timeline for electing new leadership is still fluid, they note that party rules stipulate that once a chair steps down, that person has ten days to call a meeting to elect a successor. Sources also point out that the early timeline for this year’s spring meeting, usually held in April or May rather than early March, is especially notable given the RNC’s winter meeting in Las Vegas took place just a few weeks ago.
An RNC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
The Trump campaign insists that Haley’s pledge to stay in the race beyond South Carolina will have no impact on the RNC’s expected leadership overhaul. “Doesn’t change anything,” LaCivita told Semafor‘s Dave Weigel Tuesday afternoon. “We don’t hold up a damn thing because Nikki Haley is afflicted with delusion.”
McDaniel’s anticipated resignation comes amid a flurry of reports about strains in her relationship with Trump that are years in the making. He hand-picked her for the job in 2016, after she helped deliver Michigan for him in the presidential race in her capacity as state GOP chair. Trump-world’s current frustrations with McDaniel’s leadership now reportedly include the party’s losing streak in recent election cycles, poor fourth-quarter fundraising, and hosting a number of RNC-sponsored presidential primary debates in which the former president had declined to participate, among other (fair and unfair) criticisms.