Ronna McDaniel downplays GOP 2022 postmortem draft leak that omitted Donald Trump
Ryan King
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Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel downplayed a draft party postmortem memo that reportedly did not mention former President Donald Trump.
An internal draft memo reportedly concluded that a cause of the GOP’s lackluster 2022 performance was the fact that voters were not keen on “relitigating previous elections.” The memo, obtained by the Washington Post, did not mention Trump by name, a point of contention among some members.
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When pressed about criticism over the internal study’s omission of Trump, McDaniel said that there is not a final report yet, leaving the door open for possible additions to the memo. McDaniel then quickly pivoted to her own assessment of the party’s 2022 midterm election woes.
“Independents did not break our way, which has to happen if we’re going to win in 2024, which usually, that’s what causes that red wave. And abortion was a big issue in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania,” McDaniel told Fox News Sunday. “The guidance we’re going to give to our candidates is you have to address this head-on.”
“What abortion is a bad idea to a Democrat nine months, eight months, seven months — they can’t even articulate an abortion that’s a bad idea,” she added.
McDaniel has conveyed her message on abortion in the past. She noted that the issue can be “uncomfortable” to discuss, but failure to do so helps the Democrats push their narrative.
At one point, McDaniel was asked about the party’s approach to early voting and voting ballot harvesting. Trump has railed against the use of those procedures, but has recently conceded that the party needs to change its strategy on that front to win.
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McDaniel avoided commenting on Trump’s position on early voting and contended that the GOP needs to invest earlier in the election process.
“The Democrats, they’ll invest more in that. Republican investors wait until the candidate’s picked and until the primaries are done, and Democrats are always investing in the process. That’s why the RNC is so critical. You have to invest early if you’re going to educate voters and talk to them about the importance of banking votes early,” she said.