Republican National Committee

The 1856 Republican National Convention appointed the first RNC. It consisted of one member from each state and territory to serve for four years. Each national committee since then has followed the precedent of equal representation for each state or territory, regardless of population. From 1924 to 1952, there was a national committeeman and national committeewoman from each state and U.S. possession, and from Washington, D.C. In 1952, committee membership was expanded to include the state party chairs of states that voted Republican in the preceding presidential election, have a Republican majority in their congressional delegation (U.S. representatives and senators), or have Republican governors. By 1968, membership reached 145. As of 2011, the RNC has 168 members.[7]

While a number of the chairs of the RNC have been state governors, the only person to have chaired the RNC and later become U.S. president is George H. W. Bush. During Bush's time as RNC chair, Spiro Agnew was being investigated for corruption, which would later lead to Agnew's resignation as vice president. Bush assisted, at the request of Nixon and Agnew, in getting John Glenn Beall Jr., the U.S. Senator from Maryland, to pressure his brother, George Beall the U.S. Attorney in Maryland, to shut down the investigation into Agnew. Attorney Beall ignored the pressure.[8]

In 2013, the RNC began an outreach campaign towards the American youth and minority voters, after studies showed these groups generally perceived that the Republican Party did not care about their concerns.[9]

During the presidency of Donald Trump, the RNC showed staunch loyalty to President Trump, even at times when prominent Republicans did not. Under Ronna McDaniel's 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.[10] Two days after the January 6th riot at the Capitol following the controversial 2020 presidential election results, the RNC held an event where members expressed loyalty to the President.[11]

In February 2022, the RNC censured two Republican representatives, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, for their participation in the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol; the censure statement described the committee as a "Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse."[12] The censure of sitting congressmembers, and particularly the description of the January 6 events as "legitimate political discourse", received bipartisan criticism from politicians and media.[13][14]

The Republican National Committee's main function is to assist the Republican Party of the United States. It helps to promote the Republican political platform and the "party brand" or image. It helps coordinate fundraising and election strategy.

It is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Convention.

The current chair of the Republican National Committee is Ronna McDaniel, serving since 2017. McDaniel was previously chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 2015 to 2017.[15]

In January 2019, Thomas O. Hicks Jr. was elected co-chairman of the RNC. Hicks has a strong connection to President Trump's campaigns and policy initiatives, having served as chairman of the America First Action PAC and America First Policies, and as national finance co-chairman for Donald J. Trump for President.[15]

Similar committees to the RNC exist in each U.S. state and most U.S. counties. The RNC also organizes volunteer groups for specific interests, such as the Black Republican Activists, GOP Hispanics, RNC Women (not to be confused with National Federation of Republican Women), GOP Faith, Asian Pacific Americans, Young Leaders and Veterans & Military Families.[15]

A collapsible list of the voting members of the Republican National Committee follows, as of August 2023.[39] The state chair, national committeeman and national committeewoman each receive one vote at RNC meetings and vote for RNC Chairmanship.

In February 2014, during the chairmanship of Reince Priebus, the RNC launched an in-house technology incubator called Para Bellum Labs.[42] This new unit of the RNC was first headed by Azarias Reda, an engineer with a PhD in computer science from the University of Michigan. The effort is designed to help the party and its candidates bridge the technology gap. Para Bellum, translated from Latin, means "prepare for war."[43]

In September 2019, McDaniel emailed Doug Manchester, whose nomination to become Ambassador to the Bahamas was stalled in the Senate, asking for $500,000 in donations to the Republican Party. Manchester responded, noting that his wife had given $100,000 and that his family would "respond" once he was confirmed by the Republican-led Senate to the ambassadorship. Manchester copied the email to aides of two U.S. senators whose support he needed to win confirmation. CBS News described McDaniel's action as a "possible pay-for-play scheme" for the ambassadorship.[44][45] The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in May 2021 that a federal grand jury had issued a subpoena in a criminal investigation into Manchester's nomination, apparently focused on the RNC, McDaniel and RNC co-chair Tommy Hicks, "and possibly members of Congress". The Union-Tribune reported the investigation began in 2020.[46]

• Democratic National Committee
• Green National Committee
• Libertarian National Committee
• Republicans Overseas

• Cotter, Cornelius P., and Bernard C. Hennessy, eds. Politics without Power: The National Party Committees (1964) excerpt
• Galvin, Daniel J. "The Transformation of Political Institutions: Investments in Institutional Resources and Gradual Change in the National Party Committees," Studies in American Political Development 26 (April 2012) 50–70; online
• Galvin, Daniel J. Presidential Party Building: Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush (Princeton UP, 2010).
• Goldman, Ralph M. The National party Chairmen and Committees: Factionalism at the Top (M.E. Sharpe, 1990)
• Heersink, Boris. "Examining Democratic and Republican National Committee Party Branding Activity, 1953–2012." Perspectives on Politics (2021): 1–18.
• Heersink, Boris. "Trump and the party-in-organization: Presidential control of national party organizations." [ Journal of Politics 80.4 (2018): 1474–1482. online
• Heersink, Boris. "Party Brands and the Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1952–1976." Studies in American Political Development 32.1 (2018): 79–102. online
• Hejny, Jessica, and Adam Hilton. "Bringing contention in: a critical perspective on political parties as institutions." Studies in Political Economy 102.2 (2021): 161–181.
• Hennessy, Bernard C. "The Republican National Committee and Party Policy, 1920-1963." in Politics Without Power (Routledge, 2017) pp. 191–210.
• Herrnson, Paul S. "The Evolution of National Party Organizations," in The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups, edited by Louis Sandy Maisel and Jeffrey M. Berry. (Oxford University Press, 2010) pp. 245–264.
• Klinkner, Philip A. The Losing Parties: Out-Party National Committees, 1956-1993 (Yale University Press, 1994)
• Pavlov, Eugene, and Natalie Mizik. "Brand Political Positioning: Implications of the 2016 US Presidential Election." Available at SSRN 3696652 (2020). online

• Official Website
• Republican National Committee: News clippings and publications, 1932-65, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Para Bellum Labs Archived 2017-02-15 at the Wayback Machine