Rona Romney McDaniel
Rona McDaniel
It's no secret that Michigander Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, is at odds with her uncle, Mitt Romney, when it comes to President Donald Trump. Uncle Mitt has been a harsh critic of Trump, though he had that groveling few moments when he suddenly wanted to become secretary of state and dined with the president, tail between his legs.
McDaniel, on the other hand, clearly supports the top Republican.
In a piece from Northville titled, "A Romney Who Is Unfailingly Loyal to Trump," Jeremy Peters of The New York Times writes:
Her uncle, who has been one of Mr. Trump’s most unflinching critics, is likely to run for the Senate in Utah. His re-emergence on the national stage threatens to set off new quarrels in the party over questions of loyalty to the president.
Ms. McDaniel has tried to leave little doubt about where her loyalty lies. She even stopped using her full name — Ronna Romney McDaniel — professionally after the president joked with her and her husband about dropping her given surname.
“You know the job you’re signing up for,” she said in an interview one recent morning at a diner near her home, referring obliquely to the fact that committee leaders typically have to toe the president’s line when their party holds the White House.
One thing is clear: McDaniel has no problem falling in line with the party line, Peters writes:
And she has indeed been highly deferential. She fell in line after Mr. Trump insisted last month that the Republican National Committee put resources back into the Senate race in Alabama to aid Roy S. Moore, who had been accused of preying on girls as young as 14.
Alabama rejected Mr. Moore and elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in a generation. But even now, Ms. McDaniel will not say whether she believes the committee’s move was a mistake. “I understand why the president did what he did,” she said. “He wants to keep that majority.”
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