DANA POINT, Calif. The main debate at this week’s Republican National Committee meeting was one big question: Can the official party apparatus really be neutral in the 2024 Republican presidential primary? For years, the RNC has been closely linked to former President Donald Trump’s political operation, but in the next cycle, several serious candidates beyond Trump are expected to enter the field.
Neutrality was front and center in the hotly contested race for the presidency in which, on Friday, Ronna McDaniel, originally selected by Trump for the job, was able to navigate a re-election run to a fourth term as head of the RNC, much of the which has been redone under the former president. Trump’s third run for the White House puts the RNC at the center of a situation unprecedented in modern times: a former president running in a disputed major-party primary.
Members here at the RNC winter meeting were wary of offering outside support to Trump, and both McDaniel and his main rival, Harmeet Dhillon, a California RNC committee member and attorney whose law firm has represented Trump in recent years, have pledged to lead the party in a neutral manner, in accordance with the RNC’s bylaws, as the primary season begins to heat up.
But some weren’t so sure that would be the case, particularly with McDaniel’s re-election.
“If you follow our rules, we can individually endorse whoever we want,” said Jonathan Barnett, a member of the Arkansas RNC committee who endorsed Dhillon. “The chair isn’t supposed to do it, but, I mean, that’s a joke. Because she has her job thanks to him. She can act like she’s saying that she’s neutral, but she looks at the appearance.”
Needless to say, how the NCR is handled in 2024 could affect the primaries. The party plays a key role in framing, fundraising and discussions. As Dhillon told reporters this week, potential candidates have expressed concerns to him about how the party might function in 2024 with Trump on the ticket.
Calling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis «a likely presidential candidate,» Dhillon said Friday that he spoke «not to him but to a few others, with several of them echoing concerns about party independence and process.» primary».
“I think almost everyone in this room, in the front of the room, in front of the velvet ropes, voted for President Trump twice,” he said. «But if the party is not perceived as a neutral body and a level playing field for all presidential candidates, that further alienates our voters.»
Trump did not explicitly endorse McDaniel for a fourth term, but his top political advisers attended the three-day RNC meeting. Before the event, the Associated Press reported that one of those advisers, Susie Wiles, privately notified members that Trump still supported McDaniel, while Wiles did too in public defended McDaniel from a report in the conservative media that cast a negative light on RNC spending.
In any case, some members expressed their confidence that the body would conduct the next primaries in a neutral manner. Bob Hugin, chairman of the New Jersey Republican Party, said he didn’t see this as «such a big problem» in the presidential race because the candidates «have made it a big problem.»
«Being the chair of a state party, you can’t bring people together and be an honest party if you’re not neutral,» added Hugin, who said he was undecided on his vote for president when speaking to NBC News on Thursday. .
Meanwhile, McDaniel’s allies have expressed confidence that she will oversee a fair trial.
“The RNC is committed to being completely neutral,” said Steve Scheffler, an Iowa RNC committee member and chair of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition that endorsed McDaniel, adding that he sees the 2024 primary race as “a jump” at this time. .
Interestingly, the two Trump-backed RNC candidates, North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley and Florida GOP Chairman Joe Gruters, lost their bids for co-chair and treasurer on Friday.
A day earlier, Dhillon had told reporters that he thought it was «very problematic» for candidates to accept the endorsement of presidential candidates or potential candidates and that the party needed to be neutral. In that same discussion, Dhillon was quick to suppress DeSantis’ comments calling for a change in the party that many interpreted as an endorsement of Dhillon. He also declined to offer his personal position on Trump’s 2024 candidacy.
“I think when there are a lot of headlines out here saying ‘Trump-Installed President Wins Reelection,’ I think there’s a reality and a perception,” Dhillon said. “That perception is definitely there. Perception becomes reality.
“Ronna has addressed that by saying that we are going to have a strict code of conduct,” he continued. “I don’t know if a code of conduct in the current circumstances is going to solve the problem of perception. But I’m not in charge of that. I am now a humble member of the 168.”
just before Trump announces his third presidential run Did the RNC commit to stop covering the former president’s legal expenses in NY. And his debate committee is led by a close Trump ally, Maryland committee member David Bossie.
Perhaps most notably regarding the 2024 primaries, however, is if states begin to regain control over their delegate allocation process. In the 2020 campaign, the Trump campaign essentially worked with state parties to make it more difficult for his opponents to influence the selection of delegates.
As The New York Times reported in 2019his political advisers engaged in a month-long effort to tighten those rules in order to avoid the kind of dissent he faced at the 2016 convention. In that time, more than three dozen states and territories changed their rules to make nearly any division at the nominating convention impossible.
Bill Palatucci, a member of the New Jersey RNC committee who endorsed Dhillon, said neutrality was one of his biggest concerns with McDaniel, adding that it was what «disqualifies Ronna.»
“His actions speak louder than words,” he said. “She has claimed to be neutral; she has been the complete opposite.
«What neutrality means, it’s something behind the scenes,» he continued. “Like, can we secretly stop paying Donald Trump’s legal bills? can we talk when [Trump] says racist things about [former Transportation Secretary] Elaine Chao? That is what a true leader would do. And that’s what I mean by being really neutral.»
Oscar Brock, a member of the Tennessee RNC committee who also endorsed Dhillon, echoed the concerns but said members will play a key role in ensuring neutrality.
“You have to know that she has a certain loyalty to him,” Brock said of McDaniel. “Do I think she can run a fair and impartial primary? I hope so. We’ll make sure she does.»