College Republicans Call for RNC Chairwoman's Resignation

This week, the California College Republicans (CCR) unanimously rejected RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a vote of confidence and called for her resignation as Chairwoman of the national Republican Party.

The vote, while symbolic, comes in addition to many prominent national conservatives and right-leaning organizations demanding McDaniel step down as well. But McDaniel is not in hot water for no reason. Since becoming Chair of the Republican National Committee in 2017, Republicans have repeatedly lost elections in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023. Notably, 2022 was expected to be a "red wave" by pundits and polling, but Republicans only narrowly regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives — a far cry from a "wave."

And it doesn't end there. The Republican National Committee has also struggled to raise money under McDaniel's leadership, going from $20 million cash on hand in 2017 to only $9.1 million in 2023 — a decline of over 50%. The financial situation is so dire that allegedly the RNC has had to take out a line of credit to fund its 2024 efforts.

McDaniel's performance has been poor enough that it even sparked a prominent challenge to her re-election bid in January 2023 by RNC Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon of California, who blasted McDaniel for her incompetence and how out of touch she was with the Republican voters.

The College Republicans' vote comes as the RNC meets this week in Las Vegas, Nevada to plot their strategy for 2024 — and as multiple conservative groups have lined up to call for McDaniel's ouster ahead of the meeting. Days before the RNC meeting, Turning Point held a “Restoring National Confidence" conference — a play on the RNC's initials — to countersignal and protest against the RNC. Charlie Kirk, the head of Turning Point, has said of the RNC that "They’re a bunch of losers. They know it. The grassroots knows it. The donors know it."

McDaniel still remains at the helm of the RNC following their winter meeting on Friday.