This week, Republican National Committee members are converging on Dana Point, California, for the RNC's Winter Meeting at which they will — among other business — vote to select a chairman to lead the GOP into the 2024 election cycle.
There's a lot at stake for Republicans coming out of the 2022 midterms in which underperforming candidates failed to deliver on the "red wave" that many high-ranking Republicans had promised conservative voters, ultimately managing to take control of the House by only a handful of seats and not succeeding in flipping the Senate red.
That's all in the past, but what lies ahead is even more of a challenge for the Republican National Committee: 2024. Already, former President Donald Trump has announced his candidacy for the White House, and recently his former U.N. ambassador and previous Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley has hinted that she's considering a run — and there are many more GOPers waiting in the wings likely gearing up for a presidential run.
2024 will be a test for the RNC chair to hold the party together and eventually unite around the nominee to take on Biden — or whomever Democrats run in the next presidential cycle — but it's also an opportunity to add more seats to the GOP's House majority and to flip the U.S. Senate. It's a full-plate situation, and the leader of the party will need to be smart about resource allocation, aggressive in fundraising, and better than Democrats at utilizing early voting and ballot harvesting in state's where such practices are legal.
2024 is the best shot Republicans have at undoing the damage of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats, but without GOP majorities in both chambers of Congress and a bold Republican in the White House, the ability to get America back on the right track will be hampered.
As it stands in the three-way race for RNC chair, incumbent RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel has — according to public statements and announced endorsements — the advantage heading into this week's Winter Meeting. As Townhall reported previously, 107 of the 168 RNC members said at the time that they supported McDaniel. Dhillon, meanwhile reportedly has around 60 members in her corner, and locked down endorsements from big-name conservatives and major GOP donors. The only problem is that figures like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Mark Levin don't get a vote on who becomes chair of the RNC.
The third announced candidate, Minnesota pillow magnate Mike Lindell, qualified to receive votes in the contest, but with 167 RNC members accounted for between McDaniel and Dhillon's columns, it doesn't look like he'll swing much support. He claims, however, to have enough votes to prevent any candidate from securing majority support and might force multiple ballot rounds — similar to the week-long battle to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Last week, Townhall published exclusive columns from Dhillon and McDaniel in which each made their pitch for why they ought to lead the RNC into the next critical election cycle.
Dhillon argued that the Republican Party must adapt in order to win in 2024 and beyond, and "needs fresh leadership, new vision, and fundamental changes" to do so.
McDaniel, on the other hand, said there is simply too much at stake to go back to square one and that Republicans must "build on our progress instead of going back to the drawing board" ahead of the 2024 election cycle.
Whatever happens next week, the winning RNC chair's work will have only just begun as Republican voters hope, and even expect, to make big gains in 2024 given Biden's incompetence and the damage congressional Democrats have done, effectively turning a majority of Americans against their policies.