WASHINGTON — Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., who misplaced a surprisingly shut race for governor final week, has spoken with GOP elected officers and occasion activists who need him to run for the chairmanship of the Republican Nationwide Committee, his media marketing consultant stated.
“He has acquired calls from across the nation,” John Brabender stated Sunday. “It’s doubtless that he’ll at the least discover it. … He’s fielding calls, speaking to folks, listening to them, but it surely has not gone past that.”
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel has not stated whether or not she’s going to search re-election on the occasion’s winter assembly in January, nor has Tommy Hicks, the co-chair. Below the occasion’s guidelines, the highest two posts should be held by one man and one lady.
With former President Donald Trump anticipated to announce a 3rd bid for the presidency Tuesday, and with lots of the top-tier candidates he endorsed — and who pushed his 2020 election lie — having misplaced within the midterms, Republican officers have been buzzing about who would possibly take the reins if not the Trump-picked McDaniel and Hicks.
The RNC’s spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark Sunday night.
The occasion is coming off a disappointing midterm election through which it didn’t take the Senate, and with a number of races and management of the Home nonetheless undetermined, predictions of the GOP’s profitable a snug majority didn’t materialize.
Zeldin, a four-term Home member from Lengthy Island, misplaced to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul by 53% to 47% — in a state the place Trump misplaced by 22 share factors in 2020. Many Republicans have pointed to Zeldin’s overperformance on the prime of the ticket as a pressure in serving to Republicans flip 4 Home seats within the state, most notably that of Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., praised Zeldin on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, though didn’t deal with a attainable RNC bid.
“Even in locations the place we got here up a bit of bit quick, like Lee Zeldin’s race for governor in New York, he carried out very properly in comparison with Republicans in latest elections, and he most likely helped save the Home of Representatives by bringing 4 new Republican congressmen-elect throughout the end line in New York,” Cotton stated.
