By Illinois Review
At the 2017 Republican National Committee winter meeting, where Ronna Romney-McDaniel would be elected as the RNC chairwoman, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said,
“We’ve got record levels of red all over the country.”
As NBC News reported, after the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump, as the 45th President of the United States, Republicans controlled “both the House and the Senate, as well as both chambers in 32 state legislatures. In 25 of those states, Republicans held both statehouse chambers and the governorship.”
By contrast, the Democrats held a “trifecta in only five” states.
But under the leadership of Ronna Romney-McDaniel, the niece of Never Trumper and Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, the RNC has struggled to capitalize on the momentum that saw Republicans dominate at the local, state and federal levels prior to her election as chairwoman of the RNC.
During the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats flipped control of the US House of Representatives away from the Republicans – handing the Speakership back to Rep. Nancy Pelosi for the second time.
The losses even prompted Romney-McDaniel to admit that the party would do a “deep data dive” of the 2018 midterm election and get to the bottom of why Republicans suffered so many defeats across the country.
In 2020, Romney-McDaniel oversaw election efforts where Republicans witnessed widespread voter fraud in key battleground states across the country; Democrats regained control of the US Senate where liberal Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer was elected Senate Majority Leader; Speaker Pelosi maintained her grip on power in the House; and an incoherent man with obvious health issues and numerous moments of confusion was elected president – despite rarely leaving his basement to campaign.
In 2022, after overseeing another disappointing midterm election cycle, Romney-McDaniel launched a new advisory council that would review RNC political strategy to avoid more losses and be better prepared in 2024, saying in a statement,
“As we assess the midterms and plan for 2024, we are gathering a diverse range of respected leaders in our movement to join together and help chart a winning course in the years to come.”
But overseeing a failed political strategy in 2018, 2020 and 2022 is just part of the problem for Romney-McDaniel, who can’t seem to buy a win despite massive fundraising efforts.
The bigger issue for Romney-McDaniel, made worse under tenure, is the widespread influence of a small number of RINO (Republicans in Name Only) state party officials across the country who view grassroots conservative Republicans as “steerage” – or third-class citizens.
And these same RINO party officials, like Romney-McDaniel are more concerned with maintaining their grip on power than winning actual races and supporting conservative Republican candidates. In many cases, these RINO party officials are working actively against the grassroots conservative base of the party.
In Arizona, former Republican conservative grassroots candidate for governor Kari Lake – another victim of widespread voter fraud, said recently during an interview with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk,
“When you’re in politics, you are working for the people. You’re not the boss; the people are the boss, and we need to get back to that. And right now, we’re watching this RINO class of our party try to go into all of these small legislative districts and claw back control. And I want the grassroots to know: Don’t give them a damn inch.”
In Illinois, after disappointing and humiliating midterm election losses this past November that saw Democrats once again control every statewide office; maintain a supermajority in the Illinois House and Senate; dominate Illinois Supreme Court races; and beat Republicans in winnable congressional races – Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy refuses to step down, despite overseeing a Republican party that deliberately sent mailers attacking conservative grassroots candidates in the primary.
In 2002, Don Tracy ran in the Illinois primary for the 50th State Senate District as a Democrat.
In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Tracy’s family-owned business, Dot Foods – where he is an owner, donated to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
And new revelations uncovered by Illinois Review show that on September 4, 2020 – just months before his election as chairman of the Republican Party of Illinois, Tracy made a personal donation to Citizens for Judge Emily Sutton – a Democrat running for Circuit Court Judge in the 9th Judicial Circuit.
Just prior to Tracy’s donation, Sutton received a boost from two influential Illinois Democrats – US Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL and US Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-IL, who at the time, was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
And in the 2022 Illinois governor’s primary, several Republican state party officials, including the general counsel of the Illinois Republican Party John Fogarty and RNC national committeeman Richard Porter supported and endorsed RINO governor candidate Richard Irvin’s campaign, despite Irvin pulling Democratic Primary ballots in 2014, 2016 and 2020.
Irvin also spent years praising Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker – referring to him as a “great friend and a great leader.”
And in 2020, Irvin attended a Black Lives Matter rally, yelling, “I can’t breathe!”
To this day, Porter defends Irvin’s Republican credentials, publicly referring to him as a “great Republican!” as witnessed by over 200 grassroot conservative Republicans during an Illinois Republican State Central Committee meeting in early December.
Fogarty served as an attorney representing the Irvin campaign, in addition to being the staff attorney for the IL GOP, and Porter served as “honorary” co-chairman of the campaign, despite Tracy saying the IL GOP was “strictly neutral” during the governor’s primary.
In December, Tracy, Porter and Demetra DeMonte, the other RNC national committeewoman, endorsed Romney-McDaniel for re-election as RNC chair.
Fox News reported in November that Porter was circulating a support letter for Romney-McDaniel’s re-election bid amongst RNC committeemen.
Just recently, Illinois Review published an article after numerous sources confirmed that Porter was quietly whipping votes among Illinois Republican State Central Committee members to amend the Bylaws to provide Porter and DeMonte with third terms as RNC national committeeman and committeewoman.
The Bylaws were amended in 2015, as Porter and DeMonte began their first term, to limit national committeeman posts to two, four-year terms.
Porter denies that this story is true – telling anyone who will listen that the story is full of lies, yet he refuses to publicly acknowledge that he will not seek a third term, requiring an amendment to the Bylaws.
As chairwoman of the RNC, conservative grassroots Republican Harmeet Dhillon will have significant influence over the party’s direction in 2024 and beyond – and if elected, she’ll certainly have her work cut out for her.
But ridding our party of RINO’s should be one of her top priorities – and censuring state party officials who hurt the conservative cause, rather than advance it, should be one of her first acts as RNC chairwoman.
And Dhillon is well prepared for the task. As President Donald Trump’s lawyer, she has taken on the RINOs — former US Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — and the rest of the House January 6th Committee in its ongoing witch hunt of the 45th President.
Dhillon also waged war against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s draconian lockdown orders.
In actions like these and others, Dhillon has proven that she is the Lion that Republicans need right now.
It’s hard enough battling Democrats in any election – it’s even harder when conservative grassroots candidates have to go to battle with their RINO party leaders and the statewide GOP establishment.
It’s no wonder a majority of Republicans support replacing Romney-McDaniel as RNC chairwoman – they’re tired of the RINO power grab and losing as well.
By Illinois ReviewLate on Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris abruptly canceled their holiday travel plans as the frail president was seen returning to the...
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