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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell announced that he would run against Ronna McDaniel for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, jumping into the battle as a longest-of-long-shot candidate.
Candidates for RNC chair will be nominated at the committee’s winter meeting; anyone can be nominated, though members of the RNC are typically chosen.
Two other Trump acolytes are supposedly planning possible bids against Ms McDaniel, who is seen as tied to the party’s centre-leaning establishment even despite her sharp break from her uncle, Senator Mitt Romney, over the issues of impeachment and support for Donald Trump. Lee Zeldin, fresh off a loss in the New York gubernatorial race, is seen as the strongest potential challenger while former White House aide Mercedes Schlapp is also considering a run, according to news outlets.
Mr Lindell’s ascendance to the chairmanship would be a legal nightmare for the party. The loyalist Trump surrogate is a frequent, vocal espouser of conspiracies regarding the 2020 election and remains a defendant in a $1.3bn lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, a major voting machine manufacturer, as a result.
He has one advantage over his potential opponents for the job, however: His frequent, public appearances at Mr Trump’s campaign-style rallies around the country which have given him a devout following among the Maga right’s diehard supporter base.
The bent the national GOP would be taken on was clear given the venue of his “campaign” announcement on Monday: Mr Lindell announced his challenge on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, a home for only the most diehard Trump supporters. Mr Bannon was one of the advisers to Mr Trump heard boasting months ahead of November 2020 about the ex-president’s plans to simply declare victory before all votes were counted if the result on election night was unclear late into the evening.
“I am 100% running for the RNC chairman against Ronna McDaniel,” he said. “One-hundred per cent, I’m all in.”
