RNC chairman Whatley vows to be ‘spearhead’ to defend Trump after he cruises to rematch

Members of the Republican National Committee, in a vote that was not in doubt, on Friday re-appointed chairman Michael Whatley to continue directing the national party committee.

“This organization must be the spearhead. And as your chairman, I promise that this organization will be the spearhead to protect Donald Trump,” Whatley said, speaking after the unanimous vote during the annual RNC. meeting, held annually at the state palace before the inauguration of President Trump on Monday.

Whatley, a longtime Trump ally and a big supporter of Trump’s election integrity efforts, who served as general counsel to the RNC and chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, was appointed by Trump in March in the year as the former president’s 2024 GOP presidential nominee. . Whatley succeeded longtime RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump no longer supports.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the RNC’s winter meeting, Whatley says his work toward the 2025 and 2026 midterms is straight forward.

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“It’s very important to us to make sure that Trump voters become Republican voters,” Whatley told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the RNCs winter meeting, held in the nation’s capital.

Republicans enjoyed a landslide victory in November’s election, which President-elect Trump lost With Vice President Kamala Harris winning the White House, the GOP is wresting control of the Senate from the Democrats, and holding on to its slim majority in the House.

Whatley, interviewed Thursday before the official RNC chairman vote, said the GOP needs to “reinforce those gains” made in the 2024 election.

“We will go back to the building blocks we had during the election, which is getting out the vote and protecting the vote,” Whatley emphasized.

RNC chairman Michael Whatley gave the call to order for the Republican National Convention on Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The RNC chairman pointed to the “lessons we learned” in the 2024 cycle “about going after low-income voters, about making sure we reach every voter and bring in new communities,” which he said helped Republicans make “historic gains among African American voters, among voters Asian American, among Hispanic voters, minority voters and women voters.”

Speaking just days before the presidential inauguration, Whatley insisted that if Trump is in the White House, “we’ll go right back to the RNC. We’ll roll up our sleeves and get to work. We’ve got a couple of gubernatorial races…to work on in ’25.”

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But Whatley said “everything is focused on ’26,” when the party will be securing majorities in the House and Senate, “because that will determine, from an agenda standpoint, whether we have two years of work or four years. And America needs us to have an agenda for years.” four”.

“What we will be doing is making sure we register voters,” said Whatley. “We will…connect with the people we have to get out of.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Whatley is interviewed by Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the RNC’s winter meeting, Jan. 16, 2025 in Washington DC. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

Pointing to the 2024 presidential election, he said “it’s the same basics.”

But he noted that “it’s not just seven battleground states” and that the 2026 contests “will be a very intense midterm election cycle.”

While Democrats disagree, Whatley described today’s GOP as “a reasonable party … this is a party that will fight for every American family and every American community.”

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Referring to former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump appointed to serve in his second administration’s cabinet, Whatley pointed out “the fact that we have two former Democratic presidential candidates who will serve in the president’s Cabinet. That shows that this is a commonsense plan, a team This is commonsense, which we will move forward with.”

In December, Trump asked Whatley to continue for a 2026 term as RNC chairman.

“I think we’ll be able to talk if we need to talk,” Whatley said when asked if his lines of communication with Trump would be limited now that the president-elect is back in the White House. “We will support the president and his agenda. That does not change. What has changed is his ability from the White House to carry out the agenda he campaigned for.”

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The winter meeting included the final appearance at the RNC by co-chair Lara Trump. The daughter-in-law appointed by the president resigns from her position.

He emphasized that it is important for the RNC to take “the opportunity that the voters have given us” to “continue to expand the Republican brand.”

The aging Trump is term-limited and cannot seek re-election in 2028. Vice president-elect Sen. JD Vance is likely to be considered the frontrunner for the 2028 GOP nomination.

Vice President-elect JD Vance (left) and President-elect Trump, during an election night celebration at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Whatley reiterated what he told Fox News Digital in December, that the RNC will remain neutral in the next race for the GOP nomination and that the party has “an amazing bench.”

“You think about the talent on the Republican side of the road right now, our governors, our senators, our members of Congress, the people who are going to be working in this administration. I love the fact that the Republican Party is going to be there. It’s going to have a good candidate going into ’28,” he highlighted.

Unlike the DNC, which in the 2024 cycle proposed traditional presidential election calendar, the RNC made no major changes to its primary slate, and kept the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary as its first two contests.

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Asked about the 2028 calendar, Whatley also told Fox News that “I haven’t had any conversations with anyone who wants to change the calendar, so we’ll wait and see what that looks like as we go forward. The RNC meetings this week and having a lot of conversations with people, but that’s not a big push.”

“I don’t think changing the calendar has helped the Democrats at all,” Whatley said. “And I think, making sure that we execute our system the way we always have, it’s going to be critical.”