Ron DeSantis had planned on spending a lot of time in South Carolina before Saturday’s GOP Primary. While the overall plan changed when he left the presidential race after his loss in Iowa, he still made it to the Palmetto State to discuss the 2024 contest and the future of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Regarding plans by Donald Trump’s political operation to stack the RNC with allies, including Trump ally Michael Whatley as Chair and Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, as Co-Chair, the Governor offered a muted and noncommittal response.
He said that previous criticisms he’d made of the RNC under Ronna McDaniel’s watch have been “proven right.”
“I don’t know, to be honest with you, I’m not familiar with Mr. Whatley,” DeSantis said. “I’ve met Lara Trump too, but I don’t know as much there.”
“But after the Midterms of 2022 I said you need to make changes, not for any personal reason because of getting along or not getting along, but when you lose election cycle after election cycle, at some point, you got to try something different,” DeSantis added.
He said that that not every race is the RNC’s “fault.”
“But in 2018, we lost the House in resounding fashion. 2020 obviously, we lost the presidency and the U.S. Senate. 2022: We should have had a massive red wave that crashed and burned, barely won the House.”
“You can’t just keep rewarding if the performance isn’t there,” DeSantis added.
The Governor expressed concern that the ongoing Primary battle between Trump and Haley would disadvantage Republicans in November as well.
“Democrats are sitting on a lot of money,” DeSantis said. “They’ve raised, I think, more up to this point than any incumbent president has raised.”
“They’ve made $250 million in reservations for Super PACs already. And this is January, February of the election year. There’s going to be a deluge more coming in,” DeSantis added. “So I just think as Republicans, the RNC is basically broke. We need to get our act together and start focusing on having the resources.”
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