DANA POINT, Calif. — Ronna McDaniel fended off an aggressive problem Friday to win a fourth two-year time period as Republican Nationwide Committee chair, persuading sufficient of the members that the three consecutive dangerous elections for the occasion weren’t her fault.

McDaniel, who led the Michigan state occasion when coup-attempting former President Donald Trump put in her as nationwide chair, defeated California RNC member Harmeet Dhillon 111-51 within the secret-ballot vote. Pillowmonger-turned-election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell received 4 votes. Lee Zeldin acquired one vote, though he was not an official candidate.

After her unexpectedly large margin was introduced, McDaniel introduced Dhillon and Lindell on stage together with her. Voice cracking, she thanked them and pledged to work collectively.

“We’d like all of us,” she stated. “With us united and all of us collectively, the Democrats are going to listen to us in 2024.”

Dhillon, talking to reporters afterward, stated she had promised to work with McDaniel if she misplaced and would honor that pledge.

However in describing why she misplaced, she repeated her criticisms of McDaniel’s reelection effort, claiming that the chair used her place to bribe members with plum committee assignments and different perks and used the RNC’s employees and equipment to assist safe her victory.

She additionally stated that McDaniel and committee members who voted for her ought to count on to face criticism from grassroots activists of their house states, who overwhelmingly wished new management.

“She’s getting a wakeup name this morning from exterior the constructing,” Dhillon stated. “The occasion is just not united exterior the constructing.”

The race was the primary contested election for the highest job since 2011, when then-Wisconsin state chair Reince Priebus unseated Michael Steele. That race, although, was not practically as contentious as Dhillon’s marketing campaign towards McDaniel.

Certainly, quite a few members stated that Dhillon’s use of strident voices like Turning Level USA’s Charlie Kirk or election-denier and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake harmed greater than it helped.

Ohio RNC member Jim Dicke, a McDaniel supporter, stated Dhillon’s marketing campaign, which additionally relied on native activists to flood members with calls and emails demanding that they oust McDaniel, didn’t even appear designed to win the chairmanship. “It felt like she was not working for chair, however for one thing else,” he stated. “Like working for a present on Fox Information or one thing.”

Native occasion activists have threatened to vote out RNC members who didn’t vote for Dhillon, a risk that Dhillon positively referenced in interviews. Kirk, who levels high-profile conservative youth conferences, stated earlier than the vote that if McDaniel received, his assist for the RNC would finish.

“If she wins, I can’t in good religion inform my viewers or our college students to assist the RNC financially or in any other case,” he stated. After her reelection, he stated he stood by that assertion.

How McDaniel will deal with the GOP’s greatest drawback — the continued affect of Trump within the occasion — stays unclear. Republicans misplaced the Home in 2018, the Senate and the White Home in 2020, and barely received again the Home whereas shedding one other seat within the Senate in 2022, after they anticipated to have a robust yr. In all three elections, exit polls confirmed that Trump was a robust motivating consider turning out Democrats and persuading swing voters to solid ballots towards Republicans.

Republican leaders typically, and within the RNC this week, stay divided on the best way to cope with the previous president — who’s, so far, the one introduced candidate for the GOP nomination in 2024. Celebration officers see that his unpopularity with key blocs of swing voters makes him a poor selection in a normal election however, with some notable exceptions, agree that the occasion can’t win with out his hardcore supporters.

One RNC member stated on situation of anonymity {that a} secret ballot immediately of the committee would discover that almost all are prepared to maneuver on from Trump. “That was not true a yr in the past,” the member stated.

Trump, who early on stated he backed McDaniel for a fourth time period, remained formally impartial within the remaining weeks, though lots of his high allies — amongst them former White Home counselor Kellyanne Conway and the present head of Trump’s political operation, Susie Wiles — have publicly endorsed McDaniel.

Dhillon, in the meantime, received the backing of each pro-Trump and anti-Trump voices throughout the RNC membership in addition to from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who on Thursday stated the occasion wanted new management.

Dhillon, an elections lawyer who represented Trump in his profitable effort to expire the clock on a subpoena from the Home Jan. 6 committee, handled the Trump query by taking part in either side of it. She has criticized high-profile Republican-leaning legislation corporations for failing to signify Trump in his many lawsuits that attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss ― however then has additionally boasted that she refused to become involved with those self same post-election lawsuits.

New Jersey RNC member Invoice Palatucci, among the many few RNC members publicly advocating a break from Trump, nonetheless endorsed Dhillon. He stated McDaniel’s failure to admonish Trump for his racist assaults on his personal transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, and his insults towards Republican governors Glenn Youngkin in Virginia and DeSantis in Florida was unacceptable. “You’ll be able to’t be a political enabler,” he stated.

McDaniel’s new time period lasts via the 2024 presidential election, that means she should information the occasion via what’s prone to be one other crowded presidential main whereas persevering with to cope with Trump, who might effectively face felony fees primarily based on his Jan. 6, 2021, coup try in addition to his refusal to show over labeled paperwork even within the face of a subpoena.