Expect a statement from Lee Zeldin on Wednesday on rumors that he would seek the position of chairman of the Republican National Committee. Zeldin had a crucial role in the recent political victories of the Republican Party in New York, when he came closer than any Republican has in decades to unseating Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. The problem isn’t limited to Zeldin, though.
In an interview with The New York Post, Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi stated his party “underperformed nationally.” According to Rinaldi, the “strategic mistakes” of the GOP prevented a countrywide red wave from occurring in 2022. But in New York, Lee Zeldin spoke about crime and inflation in places where Republicans are usually silenced. He “blew it up in the blue,” as stated by Rinaldi. His performance has been far above my expectations.
Not only has RNC member and Vermont Republican Jay Shepherd made similar remarks, but so have several other notable Vermont Republicans:
Bill Palatucci, a delegate for New Jersey in the Republican National Committee, was quoted as saying he would support Zeldin if he ran for office by The Post. I’m sick of losing,” the New Jersey Republican told the Post. The chairman of the Republican National Committee ultimately cares about the party’s performance in elections. It was a rough year for us in 2020, but by 2022 things had settled down enough for us to resume normal operations. The manager should be fired if the team keeps losing.
At the upcoming Republican National Committee winter meeting, these delegates will elect a new chair. The incumbent RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, claims she needs just the votes of 101 delegates to be reelected.
When asked by the Post whether McDaniel’s accusation had affected his choice to run for chair, Zeldin maintained that it had not.
Zeldin told The Post that he was confident in McDaniel’s safety after hearing from other petition signers who said they were duped into signing the petition.
According to what Zeldin said to The Post, there’s no need.
And to rub salt in the wound, he said that some of the signatories would be removed from their roles as state GOP chairman and, therefore, would be unable to cast a vote for McDaniel.
When asked if the letter discouraged him, Zeldin said, “it did not have any deterring effect on me.”
After Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election, Zeldin hopes to announce the RNC chair race on Wednesday morning.
Vespa claims that GOP super-lawyer and RNC Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon of California has launched her campaign for RNC chair and that Minnesota pillow billionaire Mike Lindell has also thrown his longshot hat into the ring. This makes the race for RNC leadership in 2023 and 2024 even more crowded.