Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said it’s time for “a change” and for “new blood” to lead the Republican National Committee – just a day before RNC members vote to select the next president for lead the GOP.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel is seeking a fourth term and takes on Harmeet Dhillon — a California RNC committee member, the CEO of the Center for American Liberty and co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association — and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell .
DeSantis, in an interview with Charlie Kirk — shared with Fox News Digital before airing Thursday — criticized RNC’s current management.
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Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ handling of a wave of Cuban immigration could serve as a lens for his policy platform if he runs for president in 2024.
(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
“We’ve had three consecutive low-quality election cycles – ’18, ’20 and ’22 – and I would say that of all three, ’22 was probably the worst, given the political environment of a very President Biden. unpopular,” DeSantis said. “A large majority of the population thinks the country is going in the wrong direction.”
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is seeking a fourth term.
(RNC)
“It’s an environment tailor-made to make big gains in the House, the Senate, and state chambers across the country, and yet it didn’t happen, and in fact, we even lost ground in the U.S. Senate,” DeSantis said. continued.
“And so, I think we need a change. I think we need to bring some new blood to the RNC,” he said.
DeSantis began his second term as governor of Florida earlier this month. His comments come amid rumors that he is considering a White House bid in 2024.
“I like what Harmeet Dhillon said about pulling the RNC out of DC. Why would you want to have your headquarters in the most Democratic city in America? It’s more Democratic than San Francisco,” DeSantis said. .
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon is a member of the California National Committee of the Republican National Committee.
(Anda Chu/MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images)
DeSantis suggested moving RNC’s headquarters to “real parts of the country.”
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“I think you get it in real parts of the country. You get people who want to live in those parts of the country, not DC insiders,” he said. “But I think we need some new thinking.”
The governor stressed the need for “grassroots Republicans to fuel” the RNC with “volunteering and donations.”
“I think it’s going to be very difficult to motivate people to donate money and donate their time to the RNC if they don’t see a change in direction,” he said.
DeSantis said that for his second successful gubernatorial campaign in 2022, his team assumed they were “not going to be involved with the RNC at all, because they weren’t raising the kind of money they needed. to collect”.
As for the RNC, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it “needs to be less consultant-focused.”
(RNC/Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee)
“Our ballot and field operation — we funded it. We focused a lot on low-propensity voters,” DeSantis explained, saying they were “very successful.” “But it was really driven by our program, our achievements and we put a lot of money into this important ground game.”
As for the RNC, DeSantis said it “needs to be less consultant-focused.”
“This money coming in should be used to win elections, not to line the pockets of so many consultants,” he said. “So we need a lot of transparency about that.”
DeSantis said one of the reasons he was successful was that his constituents trusted him.
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“There’s not a lot of trust between the base and the RNC in DC,” DeSantis said, noting that when he’s held fundraisers for the GOP he’s done well, but when he’s held fundraisers fundraisers for himself, instead of the party, “we raise a lot more money.”
Kirk told Fox News Digital that DeSantis is “listening to the base, who overwhelmingly want to see change at the RNC.”
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, said the majority of Republican voters “want the consultant class to move to the back of the base, and he understands that.”
Charlie Kirk is the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA.
(Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I hope all 168 members of the RNC hear loud and clear what he has to say,” Kirk told Fox News Digital.
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The RNC’s presidential race comes after the 2022 midterm elections that gave the GOP a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. However, Republicans failed to take control of the Senate, despite months of campaigning and party officials predicting a “red wave” election.
RNC members will choose the next president in a secret ballot vote at the national party’s winter meeting in Southern California on Friday.
Ron DeSantis was re-elected on November 8, 2022.
(Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
During her tenure as RNC chairwoman, McDaniel raised $1.5 billion – the most of any party chair.
McDaniel has also been endorsed by a number of former RNC finance chairs, including Todd Ricketts, Ray Washburne and Ron Weiser.
McDaniel garnered the endorsements of more than 100 Republican National Committee members — a number that would far exceed a simple majority of 168 to secure his fourth two-year term as RNC chairman.
