Ronna McDaniel has been the Republican National Committee’s longest-serving chair since the days of Abraham Lincoln, but she just put an end date on her tenure.
McDaniel announced in a statement Monday that she would leave her post on Friday, March 8.
In her resignation statement, McDaniel named “firing Nancy Pelosi” as one of her “proudest accomplishments.”
“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,” McDaniel said in a statement to The New York Times, the first outlet to report the news.
Reflecting on her record, McDaniel added —
Some of my proudest accomplishments include firing Nancy Pelosi, winning the popular vote in 2022, creating an Election Integrity Department, building the committee’s first small dollar grassroots donor program, strengthening our state parties through our Growing Republican Organizations to Win program, expanding the Party through minority outreach at our community centers, and launching Bank Your Vote to get Republicans to commit to voting early.
The Republicans retook the House in 2022, and the GOP demoted Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi from the House speakership. Still, under McDaniel’s watch, the GOP underperformed the polls’ projections for that election.
Accordingly, McDaniel has faced criticism for presiding over disappointing elections in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
She has retorted that the R.N.C. exists to raise and allocate funds, not to pick the candidates or to handle public relations (The voters pick the candidates, and the campaigns are in charge of messaging.) Under McDaniel’s tenure, the R.N.C. has dodged the legal bills issued to Fox News, former President Donald Trump, and other of his allies.
Trump endorsed McDaniel’s run for R.N.C. chair in 2016, but since then, he’s remained quieter about McDaniel’s performance.
When asked by Fox News about the future of the R.N.C., the former president was expecting “some changes.”
Weeks ago in a conversation with the former president, McDaniel herself reportedly floated the possibility of leaving sometime after Feb. 24, the date of South Carolina’s GOP primary.
To replace McDaniel, Trump has expressed a preference for North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley. Trump can endorse a candidate, but he can’t simply install a new chair. He would need formal approval from the 168-member panel in charge of the R.N.C.
Co-Chair Drew McKissick has also announced plans to leave, and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has emerged as the former president’s preferred choice to replace McKissick.
McDaniel, 50, called her role ““the honor of a lifetime.”
“The R.N.C. has historically undergone change once we have a nominee, and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition,” she added in her statement.
“I remain committed to winning back the White House and electing Republicans up and down the ballot in November.”
The Horn editorial team