As was rumored Sunday evening, RNC National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon is indeed running to lead the RNC, challenging current chair Ronna Romney McDaniel’s re-election bid.
Dhillon, a San Francisco-based attorney who also founded the Center for American Liberty, made it official on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
In making the announcement, Dhillon gave very broad outlines of what she plans to do differently if elected.
Well, Tucker, I’m going to announce tonight that actually I am going to run for RNC Chair, and the reason is that, you know, to play off of a famous catchphrase, Republicans are tired of losing.
I think that we really need to radically reshape our leadership in order to win. And we can’t keep running elections like we did in the ’90s and the 2000s, and we really have to modernize to compete with the Democrats dollar-for-dollar in the ways they fundraise, the way they deliver their ballots to the ballot boxes. Our messaging needs to be fresh and positive and not just reactive to news cycles and what the Democrats are doing.
And I think that the party needs to realize that the party has become a populist party. The base of the party demands populist messages that speak to them and not Chamber of Commerce messages, not Neocon messages, not warmonger messages, and I’m afraid that the base of our party is not getting what it needs from our leadership. And so after three successive rounds of really disappointing results, Tucker — I’m a member of the RNC and no other member is standing up to challenge leadership and our current leadership has never been challenged for the chair job, and I think that challenge and competition is very good.
And so I’m hoping to gain the support of grassroots Americans who do not like the direction of the party and its leadership. They need to contact the 168 members of the RNC in their states and territories and tell them that they, too, want change.
I think that change is popular among the base. I hear from thousands of Americans on a weekly basis about that. They want to see us fighting. Tucker, you know as well as anybody else that I’m a fighter. I fight every waking hour of the day. And that’s what we need right now. And so that’s me. I’m offering to take a giant step back from my law firm and my nonprofit to do this. It’s a big sacrifice. But I think it’s important for our country that I love so much as a first-generation immigrant.
Fighting for the grassroots, fighting for conservative principles, getting rid of the Neocon and Chamber of Commerce messaging, and bringing a modern outlook to how the RNC does things — Dhillon’s words should be music to the ears of Republicans who, as she says, are tired of losing. In an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s show last week, Dhillon also advocated for decentralizing the RNC. She has also stated on Twitter that consultants and consulting firms whose results aren’t cutting it need to be kicked to the curb, which has started a bit of a panic in and around the RNC’s headquarters in Washington, DC, according to sources who frequent the building.
New York Rep. Lee Zeldin said Sunday night that he’d make an announcement as to whether he will also throw his hat in the ring on Wednesday morning. Whether other current RNC members will also challenge the current leadership remains to be seen.