A new report from Red State details radical spending at the Republican National Committee under the leadership of Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel.
These expenses included private jets, limo services, NFL games, Broadway shows, senior staffer retreats, and luxury items from high-end brands.
Perhaps because of these losses both RNC donors and committee members are intensely interested in the committee’s finances, particularly the spending. Late last week, RedState was provided a report dated October 7, 2022 that examined RNC’s 2021-22 spending. It calculated more than $500,000 in private jet expenses, $64,000 at clothing retailers, and $321,000 in floral arrangements.
To determine how that compared with the rest of Ronna McDaniel’s tenure, RedState examined RNC expenditures from 2017 through 2022. In addition to a review of Federal Elections Commission (FEC) data, RedState spoke with current vendors, state party officials familiar with the workings, former staffers (some from McDaniel’s tenure, and some who worked for prior chairs), and several current RNC members to verify numbers and dates. Most were only willing to discuss the matters on background, and all were promised anonymity to avoid potential retaliation.
Breakdown of the expenses:
The breakdown shows the RNC spending even more than the DNC in many of the expense categories.
According to the financials, the RNC is quite generous to its donors, spending $17 million on donor mementos – and possibly more – during McDaniel’s tenure. Custom pins by legendary DC jeweler Ann Hand and Christmas ornaments from Chemart (the company that makes the White House Christmas ornaments) are listed as donor memento expenses, but the financials also include $65,000 in office supplies from Ann Hand and $28,000 from Chemart.
For perspective, the Democratic National Committee has spent $1.5 million on donor gifts, $35,000 on private jets, and only $1,000 for floral arrangements during the 2021-22 election cycle. Longtime RNC committee members who spoke with RedState said that other than during Michael Steele’s time as chair, it has not been standard practice for the chair to use private jet or chauffeur services.
Red State’s sweeping exposé of McDaniel’s RNC comes as she faces a legitimate challenge for the committee’s chair from conservative lawyer Harmeet Dhillon. Dhillon is the former vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party, and a National Committeewoman of the Republican National Committee for California.
Many conservatives were already clamoring for change after November’s disappointing midterm results. Now, calls for change are growing even louder. Texas’ GOP even voted unanimously to call for new leaders.
Should RNC committee members vote for new leadership? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
4 Responses
Absolutely get rid of ronna. She’s as much a disgrace to the Republican Party as uncle Mitch!
There is nothing more indicative of the abandonment of conservatism in the Republican Party than the fact in the Senate Appropriations Committee that 7 out of the 10 biggest earmark omnibus spenders are Republicans. Shelby, Inhofe, Murkowski, Blunt, Graham, Cassidy, Collins, and Moran have betrayed our party principle of small government. These anti-taxpayer senators are part of the problem and should be unelectable representing the Republican Party. Some of these big government hacks are retiring but our party
This seems to be a Republican “broken record” that whenever the intelligencia wants to rid itself of a RNC Chieftain they come out with a report showing mis-spending. They did the same thing with Michael Steele. I don’t mean to defend McDaniel, and definitely not turncoat Steele, but it is ok for the RNC to say “McDaniel failed to produce the necessary results in the midterm elections so we have decided to go in a new direction.” Good head coaches lose their job all of the team because their team failed to produce so it should be at the RNC. To claim the “firing” is due to misappropriation of funds seems to be unfair. If this spending occurred under multiple leaders maybe it is time to fire those whose task it is to audit and monitor the spending more frequently than just after Republicans lose elections.
GET THAT EXPENSIVE BITCH OUT OF THERE!!!!!!!!!!!! She needs to be removed immediately. The RNC should require that she reimburse them for any clothes and other personal items she spent money on and all private jet trips and all that floral crap. Plus any other unnecessary spending they deem unnecessary. While they are at it replace ol Mitch with someone with some balls!!!!!!!!