Whatley, who chaired the North Carolina GOP, has long been outspoken about allegations of voter fraud. He was a member of George W. Bush’s legal team during the 2000 recount.
The outgoing RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, had also been chosen by Trump in 2017. She won a record fourth term in January 2023 that was supposed to last until 2025, but she offered to leave in February as Trump and his advisers grew increasingly critical of her leadership.
Her relationship with Trump became strained last fall as the RNC hosted Trump’s challengers in primary debates, which he did not attend and demanded to be canceled. Though McDaniel remained generally well-liked among the RNC’s members and some major donors, she had critics who complained both that she was too subservient to Trump and that she was not MAGA enough.
McDaniel opened the meeting by recognizing Trump as the presumptive nominee, to a standing ovation. Trump has no remaining rivals and is quickly closing in on a majority of bound delegates but has not yet crossed that threshold.
She also welcomed Pete Hoekstra as the new chairman of the Michigan GOP after a drawn-out and contentious power struggle with Kristina Karamo, an outspoken election denier who had been elected last year.
It is common for presidential nominees to assert control of the party apparatus, but the abrupt leadership change during an election year reflects rising frustration with the GOP’s recent fortunes. The most recent campaign finance reports showed the RNC’s cash on hand at a historically low $8.7 million, compared with $24 million at the Democratic National Committee, which was already acting as an arm of President Biden’s reelection campaign. Biden’s campaign ended January with $56 million in cash, compared with $30.5 million for Trump.
McDaniel called Friday’s proceedings “bittersweet” and thanked Trump for the opportunity to serve as chair.
Now, with the RNC’s effective merger with the Trump campaign, advisers hope to quickly make up the deficit through joint fundraising vehicles that are allowed to collect larger checks under federal rules. The RNC is also expected to work jointly with the Trump campaign on field operations in swing states, get-out-the-vote efforts and legal challenges to voting procedures and, potentially, contesting outcomes. Trump had complained to advisers that McDaniel was not doing enough to prevent ballot fraud, which he falsely insists cost him reelection in 2020.
The RNC paid millions of dollars of Trump’s legal bills in 2021 and 2022, until he officially declared his candidacy for president. The committee declined to consider a proposal from Mississippi RNC member Henry Barbour to prevent the committee from resuming such payments.
The new dynamic was on display on the eve of the vote, during a reception hosted by Whatley and Lara Trump for the RNC’s 168 members (a party chairman and two committee members from every state and six territories). The person the members were most eager to meet, even after Lara Trump retired, was LaCivita, who spent the evening surrounded and getting earfuls. A handful of other Trump campaign aides mingled with the group. The RNC staff did not attend.
Friday’s meeting was originally planned as a training session for state party officials, but it turned into a formal election of the new officers after McDaniel announced her plans to step down after the South Carolina primary.
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s last rival for the nomination until she suspended her campaign Wednesday, had criticized his choice of his own daughter-in-law to lead the party. She has said she no longer feels bound by her pledge to support the eventual nominee since Trump never made the promise himself, and she has called on him to earn her voters’ support.
