Kudos to the moderators – this GOP debate has been surprisingly well run with decent questions asked. This debate is light-years better than the last one, which devolved into a circus atmosphere when the moderators lost all control.

The first question that moderator Lester Holt asked was the only question that really matters right now: why you and not Donald Trump? All the candidates got a chance to answer that question, but Vivek Ramaswamy used his time to pose a legitimate question: why is Ronna McDaniel still in charge of the Republican National Committee?

Last night was a deeply unpleasant one for Republicans on the whole. Since this was not a federal election year, Ronna McDaniel largely kept the RNC out of many of the local races. That was a mistake, as we continually saw how the Democrats were willing to spend on races, where the Republicans at the national level were not.

Yeah, I wonder, “what happened to Ronna’s national ground game?” I guess @GOP only wants to win the big races. Grassroots local races need support too. You can’t fix the voting laws or anything else if you don’t win the state legislatures…. IMO

— Zen Master Troy (@ZenMasterTroy) November 8, 2023

And yet, Ronna McDaniel is supported by Donald Trump, and the elites and the pundit class love her.

Ronna McDaniel is the @GOP’s secret weapon.

An amazing speaker and smart strategist. pic.twitter.com/v2bjCXVY79

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) November 9, 2023

Uh, Frank – if Ronna is such a secret weapon, then why does the RNC, under her control, keep racking up losses, not wins? She’s been the RNC chair since 2017. Please name the elections that she has delivered for the Republicans. *insert Final Jeopardy theme music here* News flash – there really aren’t any. The 2020 race ended with Donald Trump out of the White House, and the Senate being flipped to the Democrats. The 2022 race saw the narrowest Republican majority possible in the House – probably Ronna’s only win – which has not stopped the House from being a chaotic mess when it came to the Speaker’s gavel. The GOP lost winnable races in the Senate with candidates whose only credentials were a Trump endorsement, including Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman, who had literally had a stroke, won because Mehmet Oz was such an unappealing candidate.

And even though Ronna McDaniel is orchestrating these debates, she can’t get the field narrowed. This GOP debate season has been a slow motion train that she has apparently engineered to try and keep herself relevant, slowly whittling away candidates in order to make things more interesting. The reality is that there are only three candidates that belong on the debate stage right now: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump. And Ronna McDaniel can’t even get Donald Trump on the debate stage! Ron DeSantis is correct – Donald Trump owes it to voters to be on the GOP debate stage.

Donald Trump said Republicans were going to get tired of winning.

Well we saw last night. I’m sick of Republicans losing.

In Florida, I showed how it’s done. One year ago here, we won a historic victory — including a massive landslide right here in Miami-Dade County. pic.twitter.com/L1TajYgtm8

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) November 9, 2023

So why can’t Ronna McDaniel, who runs the RNC, who Donald Trump is relying on to fundraise and work for him, while all of his available funds are going to fight these politically motivated legal battles, tell the former president to get on the debate stage if he wants access to the RNC funds? Honestly, it’s because without Trump, she is out of a job. But if Donald Trump wants to have a chance of winning in 2024, should he be the nominee, the RNC needs a much more aggressive chair, someone who is willing to work and get out the vote in every way legally possible in each state.

We here have not been Ronna’s biggest fans. She’s failed too many times to give her the benefit of the doubt. Last night is just the latest example. Ronna’s peacocking on the debate stage after the losses last night is just the latest example of how disconnected she is from the local Republican grassroots voting. She needs to go, and someone who can point out to Donald Trump that he needs the RNC support in this election cycle needs to step in and get him on the debate stage.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click