The consensus at the 2024 Republican National Committee winter meeting in Las Vegas this week was clear among the pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions alike: Donald Trump will be the party’s presidential nominee this year.
“Let’s be honest about it. Trump is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party unless something drastic happens over the next few months,” said Alabama Republican Party chairman John Wahl. “And so with that in mind, yes, obviously the Democrats are already looking toward the general election. They’ve already started campaigning against Donald Trump. Republicans are ready to get there as well.”
The confidence among the body of 168 RNC committee members reflected the former president’s dominance and enduring grip over much of the GOP. Most members in attendance either said they are Trump supporters or pledged to support the party’s eventual nominee. Few, if any, publicly voiced support for Trump’s last remaining rival, Nikki Haley.
“I would say not only that he’s going to be the nominee, but the RNC is at least if not more pro-Trump than the average Republican,” said Rob Steele, an RNC committee member from Michigan. Steele estimated that the 168-member body is now made up of 70% of people who became chairs and joined the committee since Trump was first nominated in 2016.
Even as Trump nears the finish line of the Republican primary after neatly sweeping up victories in Iowa and New Hampshire last month, he is still facing four criminal indictments and is fighting a jury verdict in a civil defamation case. And Haley has vowed to stay in the race through her home state of South Carolina and beyond.
But members voiced confidence in how the primary would play out and what needed to come after as they also voiced a sense of urgency for the primary to wrap…
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