Former president Donald Trump gained key allies on Friday within the Republican National Committee ahead of his likely ascension to the GOP presidential nomination.
RNC officials were in Houston for the leadership meetings and agreed that Trump's daughter in law, Lara Trump, and Michael Wheatley will replace Rona McDaniel, who resigned as chair after bumping heads with Trump during the primaries. L. Trump and Wheatley will serve as co-chairs to the Committee.
According to The Hill, Whatley told RNC members that he "will be focused like a laser on getting out the vote and protecting the ballot."
"In less than eight months, we are going to determine the fate of not only the United States but of the entire world," he said.
"And this body, the RNC, is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly, every single day to elect our nominee Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States, flip the Senate, expand our majority in the House of Representatives."
Whatley previously served as chair of the North Carolina GOP and RNC general counsel and is a Trump ally who parrots much of the former president's rhetoric about election fraud in the wake of the 2020 election when Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen from him.
During an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) panel on elections, Whatley spoke of his efforts at recruiting hundreds of attorneys and volunteer poll watchers in North Carolina and spoke out against mail-in and absentee voting.
Somewhat ironically, in 2020 the New York Times published a story in which it was stated that Republicans are far more likely to use mail-in ballots and absentee voting than the Democrats.
Similar to 2020, Trump will likely present legal challenges if this election does not end with him in the White House. Lara Trump, the incoming co-chair, will focus on fundraising.
The RNC trails the Democrats in bringing in cash over the past year. Speaking before committee members on Friday, Lara Trump said; "We've got to play the game a little bit differently. We have to encourage people to do things like early voting."
