Buh-Bye! Quite honestly, Ronna McDaniel should never have been re-elected RNC Chair in the first place. Now, after some stellar reporting, specifically from RedState’s Jen Van Laar, Ronna finally got a clue.

The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, has told former President Donald J. Trump she is planning to step down shortly after the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Mr. Trump is then likely to promote the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Michael Whatley, as her replacement, according to several people familiar with the discussions. Under the arcana of the committee’s rules, however, Mr. Trump cannot simply install someone. A new election must take place, and Mr. Whatley could face internal party dissent.

Ms. McDaniel has faced months of pressure, a campaign from Trump-allied forces to unseat her and growing dissatisfaction and anxiety in the Trump camp about the strained finances of the R.N.C. as the general election cycle begins early.

Let’s take a big step back and look at the RNC track record with Ronna in charge. HOW successful was she on down AND up-ticket races in the last two major elections? Yeah… Republicans barely skated through. Furthermore, did the RNC even TRY to have a ground game in battle ground states? Did the RNC even attempt to get a true GOTV game going …ANYWHERE? Not that I nor many others could tell. And then RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar went digging. Boy howdy did she find the receipts for Ronna McDaniel’s incompetence. 

Since 2022, Jen has been telling everyone that the RNC spending isn’t about winning elections and getting voters to actually VOTE. Nope, it’s just been a big money ticket to ride on many an occasion. 

Our review found that the amounts spent during the 2021-22 election cycle seem to have been par for the course and possibly even lower than previous portions of McDaniel’s tenure. According to FEC filings, since 2017, the RNC has spent:

$3.1 million on private jet services
$1.3 million on limousine/chauffeur services
$17.1 million on donor mementos
$750,000 on floral arrangements
$80,000 in alcohol-related expenditures

Nearly $400,000 has been spent on event tickets and other entertainment activities, including $30,000 for a private box at a Las Vegas Raiders game, $13,000 for Broadway shows, $9,400 at Madison Square Garden, and $43,000 at Top Golf locations in Texas, Nevada, Virginia, and Maryland.

That was in 2022 after we LOST elections that we shouldn’t have if the RNC had had any kind of game in place! Fast forward to January 2024 after Ronna had miraculously skated to a win as RNC chair once again despite an abysmal election track record. 

Interesting thing about transfers to state parties for particular purposes. They will be under that spending category, like when the DNC gives state parties $ for data services subscriptions or software. (You can look at a spreadsheet of all DNC expenses for the time period here… pic.twitter.com/v653q3nzZb

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) February 2, 2024

Ronna and the RNC shut down multiple avenues of Hispanic Outreach claiming it wasn’t really money woes, it was leases running out or ‘we didn’t need outreach there,’ or ‘the locals had a great ground game so we weren’t needed.’ 

Except that it was money woes for sure. Overspending on frivolous shit that had and has NOTHING to do with getting good people elected to office!

Thus, is it any wonder that people within the RNC aren’t happy right now? Which is why Mike Reed, Ronna’s chief of staff was the first head on the chopping block. 

Her chief of staff stepped down earlier on Tuesday. “I know the timing of this news comes as many rumors in the press swirl and we prepare to merge with the presumptive nominee. I assure you, the RNC is in an incredibly strong position,” Mike Reed said. He will also be stepping down later this month.

~Snip

As to McDaniel’s meeting with Trump, Reed said “We always knew there would be some changes once we had a presumptive nominee, and we welcome that,” Reed wrote. “Chairman McDaniel has had great conversations with President Trump over the last few days and weeks. She will continue to lead this organization to merge seamlessly should he be the nominee.”

Wow Mikey, you are quite good at gaslighting! Of course, as noted above, the media is making this all about Donald Trump. He’s the driver of this. 

Is he really? Or is it that the RNC as a whole and specifically the GOP is finally realizing that ignoring the BASE ‘because we know best’ started backfiring on them in 2015, and has continued to the party’s detriment.

The problem was, Ronna didn’t LEAD. She phoned it in, as did much of the rest of the RNC. There are races and states that shouldn’t have been lost if the RNC had only stepped up and lent a hand. 

As to who Ronna’s replacement will be, can it be someone who is not a YES MAN? Is Whatley really the best choice? Jim has an idea or two. 

Ronna is resigning#HireHarmeet @pnjaban
We already wasted a year
Time to get the RNC rockingpic.twitter.com/vlPIGt9kOG

— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) February 7, 2024

Here’s the deal. Ronna along with the RNC has spent money hand over fist and the results have been…less than zero. We have a Republic to save and Ronna is not the leader we need nor will ever want. 

Feature Photo Credit: Ronna McDaniel via Gage Skidmore on Flickr, cropped, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)