New York, Jan 27 (IANS)Â Indian-American Harmeet Dhillon, who is mounting an insurgent campaign against the party’s leadership, is picking up support in her bid to head the party at a pivotal moment when former President Donald Trump’s future hangs in the balance.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is emerging as a potential challenger to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, expressed support for Dhillon on Thursday calling for a change in the leadership of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Chandigarh-born Dhillon, who proudly broadcasts her Punjab roots with the Twitter handle “@pnjaban” is running against the current chair Ronna McDaniel in the organisational elections to be held on Friday.
Chair since 2017, McDaniel has faced criticism for the party’s string of failures – the loss of the House of Representatives in 2018 and the Senate and the presidency in 2020, and poor performance in 2022’s mid-term elections.
“I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC, I like what Harmeet Dhillon said about getting the RNC out of DC,” DeSantis said in an interview with the founder of the conservative Turning Point USA group who is also backing her.
Dhillon’s platform for the leadership includes decentralising the party organisation by setting up more regional centres away from Washington, DC, to build the party’s grassroots and reduce the influence of lobbyists and self-serving politicians.