As promised last month, Republican National Committeewoman Ronna McDaniel made March 8 her last day, after serving as party chair since 2017.
“I’m stepping aside today because I have long promised to put the nominee and their plans for the RNC first. Winning the White House back is just too important for me to do otherwise,” McDaniel said during an RNC spring training meeting on Friday. “President Trump deserves to have the team he wants in place at the RNC.”
Michael Whatley, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party and a Trump supporter, was elected as the new chair. Whatley is from conservative Gaston County, and said he promised to support Trump.
“We will work relentlessly in every state to ensure that it is easy to vote and hard to cheat. Over the next eight months, the RNC will work hand in glove with President Trump’s campaign to deliver on these core missions,” he said.
ABC described Whatley as an “ardent supporter of Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.”
Lara Trump, daughter-in-law to Donald Trump, was elected co-chair during the meeting held in Houston, Texas. She is taking over from Drew McKissick of South Carolina.
“We have one goal. The goal on Nov. 5 is to win and, as my father-in-law says, ‘bigly,'” she said, after being elected.
Before McDaniel stepped down, she said that Trump is now the party’s nominee.
“We recognize [Trump] today for the overwhelming success he has already achieved earning the support of over 90% of Republican delegates, and acknowledge that he is not only our presumptive nominee … that he will be the next President of the United States,” she said.
