Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced Monday she will leave her post on March 8, thus drawing to a close seven years at the helm of the GOP.
McDaniel, in the midst of her fourth two-year term, said she would vacate the role at the party’s spring training meeting in Houston, Texas, so as to “allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing.”
“It has been the honor and privilege of my life to serve the Republican National Committee for seven years as Chairwoman to elect Republicans and grow our Party,” the 50-year-old said in a statement seen by ABC News, thus confirming previous speculation on the matter.
“I have decided to step aside at our Spring Training on March 8 in Houston to allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing,” she continued. “The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition.”
Likely Republican 2024 candidate, former President Donald Trump, endorsed current North Carolina GOP Chair and RNC general counsel Michael Whatley in early February to replace McDaniel as the new chair of the RNC, as Breitbart News reported.
He endorsed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to replace incumbent RNC co-chair Drew McKissick.
RNC party rules mandate that their chair and co-chair must not be of the same sex.
File/U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after his introduction by RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel at a fundraising breakfast in a restaurant in New York, New York on December 2, 2017. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
McDaniel’s resignation will take effect just days ahead of Super Tuesday, when a number of delegate-rich states vote in their presidential primaries, and over a week after her home state of Michigan will decide on a Republican nominee, the ABC report notes.
McDaniel was the the committee’s longest-serving leader since the Civil War.
The niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and a former chair of the Michigan GOP, AP reports she was Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the RNC chair shortly after the 2016 election.