The tenure of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel must immediately end. Sadly, the RNC is in horrible shape as it prepares for a crucial presidential election year.
Last week, the 2023 fundraising totals were released for both major political parties. The RNC only raised $87.2 million, compared to $119.9 million raised by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Whereas the RNC had only $8 million in cash at the end of 2023, with a $1.8 million outstanding debt, the DNC touted a bank balance of $21 million with zero debt.
These results were the worst for the GOP in a decade and significantly less than the $241.1 million raised in 2019, the last financial report preceding a presidential election year. Even with the huge fundraising totals in 2019, the RNC was not prepared for the Democratic Party’s antics in the 2020 election.
With such anemic fundraising totals this year, how can the RNC possibly defend against a better funded DNC, which also has the support of the mainstream news media, Big Tech, special interest groups, the Deep State, unions, Hollywood as well as a myriad of other advantages?
To make matters worse, the Democratic Party’s congressional committees outraised their Republican counterparts by $26 million in 2023. The online fundraising battle was also won by Democrats, as their non-profit political action committee outraised the online Republican organization by a whopping $323.2 million in 2023.
These are devastating totals for Republicans, who should be poised for victory after the disastrous tenure of President Joe Biden. Instead, the GOP is in serious trouble only nine months before the 2024 election, which will determine control of both the White House and Congress.
These numbers show that Republican donors have lost confidence in the party’s establishment, especially with Chairwoman McDaniel. In an interview on Fox News yesterday, former President Donald Trump expressed his frustration, predicting that there will “probably be some changes made” at the RNC. He said that McDaniel did “OK initially,” but that today “people are not looking at the RNC. They want changes.”
While Trump noted he has “nothing to do with the RNC, I’m separate,” their actions have created challenges for his campaign. The RNC wanted all candidates to sign a loyalty pledge to support the party’s presidential nominee, which Trump refused to sign.
In addition, the RNC sponsored numerous televised presidential debates, including one hosted by a very liberal network, NBC. Of course, former President Trump, who has always enjoyed a huge lead among Republican candidates, refused to participate. Unfortunately, the RNC gave a televised platform for several of the candidates, such as former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to ridicule Trump, the Republican Party’s leader, and massive frontrunner.
All these actions were a distraction from defeating Biden, which should have been the only focus of the party. The RNC’s questionable decisions and the GOP’s poor election results have led some GOP leaders, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, to call for the resignation of Chairwoman McDaniel. During a GOP presidential debate, Ramaswamy called on McDaniel to “come on stage” and resign.
He claimed the GOP had become “a party of losers.” He said once McDaniel “took over as chairwoman of the RNC in 2017, we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022, no red wave, that never came.” Ramaswamy also complained that the GOP was “trounced” in the 2023 elections.
In January, Ramaswamy posted on social media that there needed to be “accountability” for the Republican Party’s losses and that “Grassroots conservatives across the nation are joining me to end the culture of surrender and losing. Resign, Ronna.”
Will McDaniel be forced to resign? After her interview with former President Trump, Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo stated that “I think that there will be changes made in the Republican National Committee very soon.” Hopefully, this prediction will come true, for the party is in serious trouble.
At the recently concluded RNC annual meeting in Las Vegas, the party’s bleak financial situation was disclosed to members. After reviewing the troubling report, the Arizona RNC National Committeeman Tyler Bowyer disclosed to Just the News that the Republican Party is in “a bad financial situation.”
He said that 2023 was “the lowest year of fundraising in 30 years for the RNC.” With higher fundraising totals in previous years, Bowyer said that the GOP “still didn’t win.” With such dreadful fundraising ahead of the 2024 election. Bowyer maintained that the “grassroots is rightfully concerned.”
Bowyer is also troubled that the party is spending too much on “overhead” and not enough on “get-out-the-vote efforts.” His viewpoint was corroborated by a recent report by Jennifer Van Laar of RedState.
She analyzed spending by the RNC and DNC in several categories. The RNC outspent their DNC competitors in these types of expenditures: flowers, limousines, office supplies, donor gifts, media consulting and management consulting. Such frivolous spending on perks and extravagancies does not win elections. In contrast, the DNC outspent the RNC in vital areas such as payroll, voter file maintenance, Get Out the Vote (GOTV) texting and transfers to state parties.
With such abysmal spending priorities and incompetent leadership, it is no surprise that a growing number of Republican donors and grassroots activists are refusing to support the RNC.
For victory in 2024, Trump and all Republican candidates need new leadership at the RNC immediately. The stakes are too high for this type of negligence to continue. Unfortunately, if no changes are made, the Democrats will have another massive advantage, coupled with their already formidable advantages, to achieve victory in another election cycle.
In 2024, the Republicans have the right candidate, the right policies, and historic enthusiasm from the grassroots level, while the worst President leads the Democrats in American history. Nonetheless, if the party apparatus is not well funded and equipped to battle for every vote, it will be another disappointing night in November, and the consequences for the country will be too unspeakable to contemplate.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian, and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from Noon until 1 p.m. CT nationally on Real America's Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-11 a.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com