The RNC is still all in for Trump
The president endangered the life of the vice president and it doesn’t seem to matter
Last Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Republican Party lost its Senate majority. On Jan. 6, its leader inspired an assault on the U.S. Capitol, placing his vice president and his party’s congressional leadership in harm’s way. On Thursday, several of those leaders — certainly not enough — condemned the president. Then, on Friday, the chairwoman of Republican National Committee, known chiefly for her loyalty to the president, was … reelected with no opposition.
Does anyone else find this turn of events remarkable?
In 2016, following President Donald Trump’s surprise victory, the GOP held the presidency, the Senate and the House. As of next week, it will be completely shut out of power (albeit barely) in Washington for the first time in 12 years.
The party’s rush to ratify a second term for Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is all but unprecedented. Yes, Mr. Trump did better than any previous losing incumbent. But that obscures a major issue that the Georgia Senate results crystallized: Mr. Trump has coattails when he’s on the ballot but is an anchor around the party otherwise. The 2018 midterms generated the highest turnout in a century: The Democrats picked up 40 seats and took the House. In November, Mr. Trump’s presence on the ticket helped Republicans gain House seats, but the hold on the Senate was tenuous and ultimately broken.
Following a defeat in a presidential election, particularly when its candidate was the
incumbent, the Republican Party has taken the opportunity for some introspection and allowed for some new thinking.
Following President Gerald Ford’s narrow post-Watergate loss to Jimmy Carter in 1976, the RNC turned to former Sen. Bill Brock of Tennessee to revive the party’s fortunes. Pioneering the then-innovative technique of direct mail, Mr. Brock oversaw a financial and strategic renaissance, registering a net gain of three Senate seats in the 1978 midterms and positioning itself for Ronald Reagan’s 1980 win (and attendant Senate majority).
History repeated itself (somewhat) in 1993. Following President George H.W. Bush’s catastrophic loss to Bill Clinton (less than 38% of the popular vote, with Ross Perot sundering the Reagan coalition), Mississippi lawyer Haley Barbour won the chairmanship over three ballots. Mr. Barbour’s fundraising prowess and messaging skills, alongside the House
GOP’s parallel “Contract With America” legislative agenda, helped produce the 1994 “Republican Revolution,” which included winning the House for the first time in 40 years and retaking the Senate after eight. (Disclosure: I was on the RNC staff at the time.)
Even following John McCain’s 2008 loss, partly due to George W. Bush departing as a historically unpopular two-term president, the RNC had a contentious leadership struggle, with former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele prevailing after six ballots. Despite Mr. Steele’s success — the GOP won the House, 600 state legislative seats and many other down-ballot races in 2010 — the RNC fired him. His successor was Reince Preibus, and despite the party’s failure to win the presidency in 2012, Mr. Preibus was reelected. Perhaps this sequence was the unfortunate precedent for the party deciding that electoral results shouldn’t matter in selecting a chairman.
At any rate, rather than follow the earlier models as a way toward renewal, the platform-less RNC has now doubled down on its allegiance to its losing candidate. At the RNC meeting in Florida last week, Mr. Trump’s greeting — he literally phoned it in — was met with a loud ovation.
Ms. McDaniel promises independence, and she did invite possible 2024 Trump rivals to the meeting. But when she runs with Mr. Trump’s endorsement and invites him to call into the meeting a day after one of the most calamitous moments in U.S. political history, it’s fair to be skeptical.
Of course the RNC’s tepid response to the Capitol riot is even more disturbing than the ratification of Ms. McDaniel’s tenure. But that’s the subject for another column.
Suffice to say that in any other administration, in any other party, the outgoing vice president would be seen as a potential leading candidate. One would think that the party would not want to see him harmed. And yet, 48 hours after the sitting president helped imperil the sitting vice president, 168 Republican National Committee members voted to reaffirm Donald Trump’s control over their party and their future.
A party that refuses to either look inward or move forward is an endangered party. The RNC’s inability to opt for newer and fresher voices at a moment of existential crisis is both a practical and moral failure.