Harmeet Dillon Says Republicans Ignore Grassroots Base At Their ‘Risk’

DANA POINT, California. Harmit Dhillon has a warning for the Republican National Committee.

Dillon, an NRC committee member from California that failed Friday in its bid to unseat longtime National Party Chair Ronna McDaniel in a high-profile and explosive election, pointed to grassroots support and warned “if we go back to our homes and ignore this message , I think it’s at our own peril and risk. This is at our personal risk as party leaders, and it is at our risk to our party as a whole.”

McDaniel won re-election on Friday, ending almost two months of taunts and accusations amid a serious fight over the future of the Republican Party.

The chairman won the support of 111 committee members who voted for the chairman by secret ballot, more than a majority of the 168 members required to secure a fourth two-year term of leadership of the NRC, unprecedented in modern times. The vote took place on the final day of the NRC’s winter meeting, which took place this year at a luxury beach resort in southern California’s Orange County.

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Newly elected GOP National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel (center) hugs candidate Harmeet Dhillon (second from right) and Mike Lindell (right) at the committee’s winter meeting in Dana Point, California, Friday, January 27. , 2023.
(AP)

Dillon, an attorney who served as legal adviser to former President Donald Trump, enlisted the support of 51 committee members. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump’s repeated retrial over the 2020 presidential election and a long-term bid for the seat, received just 4 votes.

Dillon campaigned insurgently, stressing that change was needed after the GOP’s poor performance in the 2022 midterm elections, which many in the GOP expected a red wave in the election.

“We are disappointed with the results as we left everything on the field and worked very hard over the last few weeks in this campaign,” Dillon said. “The results were not what we or hundreds of thousands of our supporters across the country expected, and I think the party will have to deal with these consequences and disconnect from the grassroots.”

And she warned that “if the voters think our party has lost touch with the voters, they won’t come. We must solve this problem in the next two years.”

Ronna McDaniel wins re-election for an unprecedented 4th term as NRC CHAIRMAN

McDaniel was an active fundraiser for the National Party when she chaired the committee. But the GOP’s election failures in November during McDaniel’s tenure, such as the failure of the Republicans to regain the Senate and losing key gubernatorial races, and in 2018, when the party lost a majority in the House of Representatives, and in 2020, when it lost control of the Senate and the White House prompted calls for a change in leadership.

When asked about Dillon’s criticism, McDaniel stated in an exclusive interview with Fox News after her re-election victory that “I think the grassroots got some misinformation from her campaign and we’re going to get in touch with them.”

“I’m about to go on a massive tour. I would like her [Dhillon] to go with me. I want other leaders of our party to go with me,” McDaniel said. “But they don’t always understand what the RNC is doing. And it’s our job to get out. But we love the people. We appreciate them. We need them to kick down the doors and watch the polls. And I’m going to be traveling around the country preparing them to defeat the Democrats because we can only do this together.”

McDaniel promised to get in touch and call Dillon and Lindell, adding that “my whole campaign in this election has been unity. We need all of us. We need addition, not subtraction. “I don’t understand that we have to beat the Democrats. That’s what I’m going to do as the leader of this party. I’m going to contact both of them.”

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Dhillon still has two years before the end of her term as a member of the committee from California, and she told reporters: “I promised throughout this campaign to work hand in hand with the party that won this election, whoever it is, and I intend to honor that promise and continue to work hard with Ronna.”

Asked about any specific future leadership role for Dhillon, McDaniel said, “We haven’t discussed anything like that.”

The RNC showdown, the party’s first hotly contested seat race in a dozen years, turned into a bitter family feud as the GOP secured its lead. The drama has unfolded as the party jumps into the electoral cycle, seeking to retake the White House, restore a majority in the Senate, and maintain fragile control of the House of Representatives. It also comes as the party seeks to bounce back from disappointing November results and discusses the future of the party and Trump’s continued control of the Republican Party.

Dillon stated after her defeat that “I’m 100% saying” that the RNC apparatus was not neutral in the chair race. “It’s not fair. It is the use of corporate resources for personal gain.”

But she added that “I do not dispute the results. I mean it wasn’t that close. I can read”.

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And she emphasized that “many supporters of Ronna came to me. They thanked me for running and saying: “You raised important issues, and there are things that the chairman will have to answer for…. We cannot have an indefinite chairman of the Council.” The Republican National Committee who never leaves because she uses her resources to get re-elected.”

McDaniel responded in an interview by saying, “This is my last term as chairman. I talk about it on Fox News. It is done”.