RNC Chair McDaniel Paid Opponent Nearly $900k, What Was the Money For?
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel paid her top rival in the race nearly $900,000 over the last two years, according to financial data published by OpenSecrets.org.
The RNC under McDaniel paid Dhillon Law Group, the Virginia-based law firm run by Harmeet Dhillon, who is running against McDaniel for the party’s chairmanship, $892,550 in legal fees between March 2021 and August 2022, according to financial disclosures that OpenSecrets obtained.
Dhillon, an RNC committeewoman from California, announced that she would run against McDaniel for the job earlier this month.
Each expenditure was described as being for “Legal and Compliance Services,” which likely refers to legal fees for lawsuits. The Daily Caller News Foundation was unable to determine what specific legal work the firm had performed for each payment.
Dhillon Law Group has represented the RNC in several lawsuits, most notably in RNC v. Google, a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of California that accuses the company of hindering Republicans from reaching their voters by sending RNC mass-marketing emails to spam folders on users’ Gmail accounts, according to the firm’s website.
The RNC needs a total revamp. We are not innovating, we are not leading, we are not WINNING, and our messaging is not clear – the RNC needs new leadership, energy, and a grassroots-focused, not a DC-centric, top-down-consultant-driven, approach. pic.twitter.com/q6chW29nRB
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) December 8, 2022
Dhillon’s campaign for the chairmanship has been focused on alleged failures under McDaniel’s leadership of the party, though she has rarely mentioned her by name. Dhillon’s platform includes promises to shore up the RNC’s in-house legal team, to fight lawsuits against Democrats and state officials, as well as replacing most of the party staff and retained consultants with teams outside of Washington, D.C.
“Republicans are tired of losing and I think that we really need to radically reshape our leadership in order to win,” said Dhillon in her candidacy announcement on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Dec. 7.
She added 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.”
Dhillon’s firm receiving payments from the RNC has prompted criticism from other candidates in the chairmanship race.
“She is protecting the cash. If she becomes chair, she could still ship cash to the law firm and use the perch to increase the profile and drive even more cash to the firm,” Mike McKenna, a former Trump White House staffer, who recently announced his candidacy for RNC chairman in a Washington Times piece, told the DCNF.
The payments to Dhillon’s firm from the RNC under McDaniel are not the only direct links to her. In November, McDaniel established a committee of experts to review the party’s failures to make outreach to Asian, black, Latino and suburban women voters.
Dhillon named co-chairwoman of that committee.
Dhillon’s bid has, so far, received tepid support from the RNC’s 168 committee members, who elect the chairman. Several committee members representing Virginia and Vermont have pledged to support her on Twitter.
However, McDaniel has already received public pledges of support from 107 committee members, well over the 85 she needs to be re-elected to a fourth two-year term as chairwoman, including from influential committee member David Bossie.
Here are the RNC members who support McDaniel. This was per an open letter they released shortly after the election, so some are persuadable. There are 101 total on this list. Assuming the other 67 are willing to support Harmeet, that means we need to flip just 18 from this list. pic.twitter.com/FL9x676AFY
— Green Bastard (@Green_Bastardo) December 10, 2022
Apart from McDaniel, Dhillon, and McKenna, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has announced he will run. However, he has not gained any support from a voting member of the committee.
McDaniel and Dhillon did not respond to a request for comment.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
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