Ronna Romney McDaniel

Ronna McDaniel ( Romney; born March 20, 1973) is an American politician and political strategist serving as chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) since 2017. A member of the Republican Party and the Romney family, she was chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 2015 to 2017. Since McDaniel's 2017 election as chairwoman of the RNC, the Republican Party has had a net loss of seven governorships, three seats in the United States Senate, and 19 seats in the House of Representatives, and the presidency. In December 2022, Axios wrote that McDaniel "has thus far failed to preside over a single positive election cycle." A granddaughter of Michigan Governor and businessman George W. Romney and a niece of Massachusetts Governor and U.S. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, McDaniel has been known for her prolific fundraising and staunch support for President Donald Trump as RNC chair. Under her leadership, the RNC ran ads for Trump's 2020 campaign as early as 2018, put numerous Trump campaign workers and affiliates on the RNC payroll, spent considerable funds at Trump-owned properties, covered his legal fees in the Russian interference investigation, hosted Trump's Fake News Awards, and criticized Trump critics within the Republican Party. After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump refused to concede, McDaniel and the RNC made claims of voter fraud, and attempted to overturn Biden's victory. In 2022, she orchestrated a censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republicans who served on the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. The censure characterized the violent pro-Trump mob as having engaged in "legitimate political discourse". During its fourth public hearing, the House January 6 Committee presented a video excerpt of a deposition from McDaniel where she revealed that, at the request of Trump and John Eastman, she had the RNC help organize fake electors for the Trump fake electors plot. Early life and education McDaniel was born Ronna Romney on March 20, 1973, in Austin, Texas. The third of five children born to Ronna Stern Romney and Scott Romney, the older brother of Mitt Romney, McDaniel is a granddaughter of three-term Michigan Governor George W. Romney. Her mother ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996 against Carl Levin, served on the Republican National Committee, and was a delegate to the 1988 Republican National Convention. Romney's grandmother, Lenore Romney, ran for the U.S. Senate in 1970.