Is This Why Harmeet Dhillon Fell Short in the RNC Race?

In the final weeks of the election for Republican National chair, things got ugly. Ronna McDaniel, the incumbent chair of RNC was elected to an unprecedented fourth consecutive term. However, these contests, which aren’t often exciting, became a focus of national attention after attorney Harmeet Dhillon decided to toss her hat in the ring to bring much-needed change to the organization after three consecutive election losses. The shocking election performance of GOP in 2022 midterms was supposed to be a red tide. This was the turning point for many grassroots activists.

Besides having a prime environment to clinch significant majorities in Congress with the Biden agenda creating high inflation and an economic recession, Democrats had a stroke victim—John Fetterman—running in one of their crucial Senate races. He still won despite his mental impairments. The GOP couldn’t defeat a man who was unqualified and couldn’t string a coherent sentence together. I don’t know if that says more about the American electorate or the GOP. It was embarrassing. It was embarrassing for everyone, with the RNC chair elections being re-elected by the same congressional Republicans who were responsible for this political oil spillage.

Dhillon isn’t a bad candidate, but her team might have been too aggressive, alienating potential RNC committee members. It is understandable that Dhillon may have felt anger and frustration, but her crew might have been more disciplined. It at least wouldn’t have ended with McDaniel boat racing the rest of her challengers, the other being MyPillow’s Mike Lindell (via Politico): 

Two-month-long, sometimes fierce race sparked discussion about the RNC’s finances and how it fared in recent elections. It also saw some members — on both sides of the contest — publicly calling into question the character of their colleagues, putting McDaniel and her allies on the defensive and forcing the incumbent chair to assemble an aggressive whip operation to shore up her support. 

[…] 

Dhillon, whose firm represents former President Donald Trump, raised her profile over the last year with regular appearances on Fox News’ evening programs — garnering support in her bid for chair from a prominent cast of conservative commentators. That list included Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Charlie Kirk, who helped mobilize an army of grassroots activists to call and email RNC committee members, urging them to oppose McDaniel’s reelection. However, these high-profile figures did not always add value. 

On multiple occasions, on-the-fence members told Dhillon and her allies that they would be open to supporting her if Kirk weren’t one of her surrogates, said Oscar Brock, the national committeeman from Tennessee who was part of her team. Dhillon had assured concerned members that Kirk, a firebrand conservative figure, wouldn’t be part of RNC staff, should she win. Her whip team never had a discussion about Kirk asking for his support to be reduced.

[…]  

Kirk wasn’t the only Dhillon ally whose aggressive advocacy ended up turning off members of the committee. Caroline Wren, who most recently ran Kari Lake’s gubernatorial campaign in Arizona, got into a heated exchange with Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones on Thursday night in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria. 

According to three people familiar with the confrontation, Wren, who has been Dhillon’s top adviser in her campaign for chair, told Jones: “Everyone knows you’re here fucking whipping votes for Ronna.” He was then called “a” by her. “fucking sell out,” Add this to the mix “the grassroots will never support you again.” 

According to a source familiar with the conversation, Wren also approached Jones twice this week. Once while Jones was talking with an RNC member. During which time she called him. “the fucking enemy,” And another time Jones was talking with Lake. During which time she called him a “sellout.” 

Wren stated that Jones was frustrating her because she had previously been a supporter public of Dhillon. But she downplayed the tenor of Thursday night’s conversation, saying she did not use profanity and adding that she even laughed at one point. Jones smiled and shrugged when Jones was asked about Friday’s encounter. “there’s not much more to say.” 

In addition to relying on prominent conservative figures, Dhillon’s whip team also held calls once or twice weekly, said Brock. But several committee members in recent days said that calls and emails from Dhillon’s team had become too much, eventually solidifying their support for McDaniel.

The race is over—that’s the point. I don’t think the party should waste any more time on an autopsy here; it’s a chairmanship race. I also don’t think the establishment should use this to take cheap shots at the grassroots for their justified frustration over how the GOP has been run lately. Dhillon may not have been able to win this election, as Ronna has highlighted the 107 signatories of letters of intent in support for her fourth term. In the end, that number proved to be quite accurate. Could she have siphoned votes from McDaniel’s core group? Who knows, but if there’s one thing, we all know about this business it’s that disappointment is frequent.

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