Members of the Republican National Committee will vote on Friday to select the Party’s next Chair.
Ron DeSantis made his views about the future of the Republican Party perfectly clear in an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
And the GOP establishment is fuming after Ron DeSantis admitted one brutal truth about the Republican Party’s leadership.
Republican candidates massively underperformed during last November’s Midterm elections, as the expected red wave fizzled out by Election Day.
Even though Republicans underperformed across the country, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis exceeded expectations with his stunning 19-point landslide re-election victory over Democrat Charlie Crist.
DeSantis’ huge victory helped Republicans pick up a supermajority in the state legislature and turned the Sunshine State solid red.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is holding its annual winter meeting in southern California this week at a luxury seaside resort in Orange County.
The GOP’s dismal performance in the Midterm elections is a hot topic of debate at the meeting, where members are hashing it out to determine what went wrong and how to prevent future failures like the one that took place in November.
One of the most contentious battles is for Chair of the RNC.
Ronna McDaniel is running for a fourth term but is being challenged by Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney who is also an RNC committee member from California, as well as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Dhillon is running an insurgent campaign that focuses on the Party’s lackluster performance under McDaniel’s leadership.
On Thursday, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk interviewed Ron DeSantis about the Republican National Committee meeting.
And DeSantis was not shy about making his feelings known.
“We’ve had three sub-standard election cycles in a row – ’18, ’20 and ’22 – and I would say of all three of those, ’22 was probably the worst given the political environment of a very unpopular President Biden,” DeSantis said. “Huge majorities of the people think the country is going in the wrong direction.”
DeSantis said Republicans should have made massive gains in that type of “tailor-made” environment, but “that didn’t happen” as the GOP “even lost ground in the U.S. Senate.”
The Florida Governor then made a comment that many viewed as a sign of support for Harmeet Dhillon as the next Chair of the Republican National Committee.
“And so, I think we need a change,” DeSantis said. “I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC.”
He also praised Dhillon for suggesting the RNC move its headquarters out of Washington, D.C., which is “the most Democrat city in America.”
“I like what Harmeet Dhillon has said about getting the RNC out of D.C.,” DeSantis said. “Why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democrat city in America?,” he asked, before noting that “it is more Democrat than San Francisco is.”
Regardless of the location of the headquarters, DeSantis said “we need some fresh thinking” in the GOP.
“I think it is going to be very difficult to energize people to give money and to want to volunteer their time with the RNC if they don’t see a change in direction,” DeSantis said.
Ron DeSantis voicing his opinion about the need for “new blood in the RNC” will likely have a major impact on the outcome of the vote given his status in the GOP after his landslide re-election victory.
And DeSantis is using his position to push for policies that benefit grassroots conservatives instead of the establishment candidates and their deep-pocketed consultants.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
