Republicans appear to have forgotten the definition of insanity
Ronna Romney McDaniel wins again
On Friday afternoon in California, Republicans did something sort of odd: They reelected Ronna Romney McDaniel as chair of the Republican National Committee, her fourth term in the job.
“We need the continuity at this point in time,” the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party told the New York Times of McDaniel. “There’s really no one challenging her that offers anything that is materially different than what she will do as our leader.”
Which is an interesting argument to make. Especially after the 2022 election in which Republicans drastically underperformed expectations — very narrowly winning the House majority and failing to capture the Senate majority despite needing to pick up only a single seat.
It was the third straight election in which Republicans fell short of their expectations. In 2020, Donald Trump lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden while Democrats retook the Senate thanks to two runoff victories in Georgia in January 2021. In 2018, Democrats retook control of the House — netting 41 seats.
So, from 2018 to 2022, Republicans lost their House majority, their Senate majority and the White House. And yet, the person who is, ostensibly in charge of the party apparatus just got reelected.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on Thursday, pointed out the seeming incongruity.
“We've had three substandard election cycles in a row," DeSantis, widely expected to be a 2024 candidate, said. "I think we need a change, I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC.”
DeSantis endorsed California committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon over McDaniel. McDaniel wound up winning 111 votes to 51 for Dillon. MyPillow executive Mike Lindell took 4 votes.
So, why did McDaniel win again? A few reasons:
The members of the RNC are notoriously provincial. They care less about the well being of the national party than they do about their relationship with the chair and what she (or he) has and can do for them and their state.
It’s hard to beat something with nothing. While Dillon is a member of the RNC and her law firm worked for Trump during his back and forth — such as it was — with the January 6 committee, she was still a largely unknown figure on the national stage when she started running for the post. And she could have used DeSantis’ endorsement about a month sooner than she got it. Lindell, who has made a name for himself by being the last man — other than Trump — willing to give up on the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, was never a viable choice.
Regardless of the reasons, the RNC will now have the same team in place — or at least most of the same team — that has overseen the last 3 elections. And while there were bright spots in those elections for Republicans (they did win back the House majority in 2022!), there’s no doubt that the main takeaway from each of those elections was disappointment in the GOP ranks.
It’s an odd decision but one perhaps fitting for a party that is still grappling with its past and what role that has on the present and the future — all rolled up in the form of Donald Trump.
Trump is running for president again and most polls suggest that he is the frontrunner. But, there is a palpable fear among Republicans that if Trump doesn’t win the nomination, he could pursue a third party bid in the general election — swamping GOP prospects of winning the White House in the process.
In the run-up to the RNC chair election, McDaniel openly made the case that she would be the best person to keep Trump from doing just that.
Trump didn’t endorse anyone in the RNC race although he congratulated McDaniel for her “big WIN” in a Truth Social post afterward.
In a way, McDaniel’s win may be an acknowledgment by the RNC that they know they have a potential problem in Trump and need the best person available to manage that issue when it, inevitably, comes down the pike.
The assumption that McDaniel can do that, of course, is reliant on the notion that Trump listens to and takes advice from anyone. Which, if history is any guide, he doesn’t.
You start from the premise that the GOP could have and should have done better in the last 3 elections. What if the premise is wrong? What if they truly are a permanent minority party whose only hope of survival is cobbling out a one or two seat majority in the Senate based on controlling more territory but not a majority of the voters, a bare majority in the House primarily through gerrymandering, and the occasional electoral college win while losing the popular vote? There is no indication that I see that a larger coalition can be cobbled together as long as they have to placate the cultural warriors on their extreme flank and appeal to the less educated who respond best to appeals to their fears by giving them someone to hate. What McDaniel accomplished may very well be the best they can hope for given who they are.
Given the other 2 options she was probably the “better” person for the job. But gag is she horrible.