Ronna McDaniel won re-election to a fourth term as Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman on Friday, beating challenger Harmeet Dhillon in a secret ballot vote at the party’s annual winter meeting.
McDaniel is now on track to be the longest-serving GOP chair since the 19th century.
She joins Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in staving off challenges to their leadership following Republicans’ disappointing performance in the November midterm elections.
The contest was seemingly a foregone conclusion for months. McDaniel released an endorsement letter from more than 100 of the RNC’s 168 members shortly after the midterms — support that led to then-New York Rep. Lee Zeldin deciding not to launch his own bid to lead the RNC.
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But with the vote held by secret ballot and Dhillon’s aggressive campaign arguing that McDaniel should not be re-elected after GOP shortcomings in November, members did not write Dhillon off ahead of the vote. Publicly, roughly 30 RNC members had committed to Dhillon ahead of the ballot.
A third candidate, My Pillow founder, Mike Lindell, launched a long-shot bid and never picked up much momentum. He wouldn’t share how many people have committed to him.
McDaniel’s supporters argued she was best positioned to move the party forward because of her resource allocation and solid working relationship with state party leadership.
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