GOP further tightens tie to ex-President Trump
Continued devotion deviates from the party’s past position
SALT LAKE CITY — In 2016, Donald Trump overtook the Republican National Committee, stunning party leaders. In 2020, the party was obligated to support him as the sitting president.
Heading into 2024, however, the GOP has a choice.
The RNC, which controls the party’s rules and infrastructure, is under no obligation to support Trump again. Party bylaws specifically require neutrality should more than one candidate seek the party’s presidential nomination.
But as Republican officials from across the country gathered in Utah this past week for the RNC’s winter meeting, party leaders devoted considerable energy to disciplining Trump’s rivals and embracing his grievances. As the earliest stages of the next presidential contest take shape, their actions made clear that choosing to serve Trump and his political interests remains a focus.
“If President Trump decides he’s running, absolutely the RNC needs to back him, 100%,” said Michele Fiore, an RNC committeewoman who has represented Nevada since 2018. “We can change the bylaws.”
The loyalty to Trump is a fresh reminder that one of America’s major political parties is deepening its alignment with a figure who is undermining the nation’s democratic principles.
Some Republicans said that’s beside the point.
“There’s probably some disagreement there,” said Bruce Hough, a longtime RNC member from Utah who lost to a Trump ally in a race for party co-chair last year. “The RNC has to provide a level playing field for any and all comers for president. That’s our job.”
But a stark divide has emerged between veterans like Hough, who are devoted to the GOP as an institution, and a larger group of Trump-aligned newcomers, who argue they’re bringing new energy to the party.
The RNC’s continued embrace of Trump more than two years before the 2024 election is a decided shift from the party’s position in past elections.
In 2012 and 2016, Reince
Priebus as RNC chair went to great lengths to ensure each of the candidates was treated equally. The party sanctioned 12 debates, including early rounds that featured up to 17 candidates.
“Clearly, there’s a bias that didn’t exist in the past,” said Tim Miller, who previously worked for the Republican National Committee and has since emerged as a fierce Trump critic. “It’s all Trump all the time coming out of there.”
Just after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declined to encourage Trump to run again when asked, citing party rules on neutrality. She also discouraged attacks on those Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment.
Last week, however, she backed an effort by Trump loyalists to censure Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a move triggered by their fight against Trump’s enduring influence in the party beyond the Capitol attack.
The censure, which passed on a voice vote Friday, says the two “support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022.”
McDaniel’s shift coincides with the RNC’s reliance on Trump for fundraising. The party has issued hundreds of fundraising appeals since Trump left office evoking his name.
Though the committee’s moves demonstrated a sustained loyalty to the former president, outside the winter meeting the censure was condemned by opponents as divisive and contrary to frequent appeals from leaders to expand the party’s tent.
Indeed, last week’s focus on debates that won’t
take place until 2024 and on anti-Trump Republicans overshadowed the party’s preparations for the midterm elections.
That’s notable because the GOP could reclaim control of at least one chamber of Congress and several governor’s mansions. Trump’s grievances with his Republican critics took center stage instead.
“We should be focused on what the voters are focused on,” said Caleb Heimlich, chair of the Republican Party in Washington state, where two of three Republican
House members voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection. “I’ve been talking to voters in Washington state, traveling around, and nobody talks about Cheney.”
But Harmeet Dhillon, an RNC committeewoman from California, said it was imperative to send a clear message about Cheney and Kinzinger.
“The midterms are about a party electing its leaders, and what Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney did here is defy their party’s leadership,” Dhillon said.