RNC chair race in 'bedlam' as McDaniel challenger doxxes her supporters' emails

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that the race for chair of the Republican National Committee is turning ugly, as an email war erupts between GOP officials over the future of party leadership and the candidates' supporters lob increasingly nasty accusations at each other.

"In less than two weeks, the race to lead the RNC — the first contested competition for the position since 2011 — has devolved into private bedlam, a competition of personal animus involving anonymous email blasts, direct accusations of self-dealing and buying votes, an indirect electoral blame game, and RNC member doxxing," reported Jake Lahut and Zachary Petrizzo.

The race is primarily between Ronna McDaniel, the incumbent who has presided over the GOP throughout the Donald Trump years, and Harmeet Dhillon, a former lawyer to Trump who filed lawsuits to try to invalidate COVID-19 health restrictions.

"Most of the bad blood in the race has materialized over email — specifically, on the RNC’s listserv," said the report. "An anonymous ProtonMail account going by 'rncnews' has lambasted Dhillon over an alleged pattern of leaking, while also accusing Dhillon of enriching her law firm with $893,641 in direct payments over the midterms cycle. The anonymous account detailed one of the main gripes among Dhillon critics: her more than $1.3 million in legal fees as a vendor for the RNC during the 2022 cycle."

"In a Dec. 8 email obtained by The Daily Beast, Jeff Kent, a Washington state national committeeman, vigorously defended McDaniel against a specific line of attack from Dhillon — that the RNC chairwoman was buying votes," said the report. In the email, Kent said, “There are false accusations being peddled on national TV that the RNC members who are backing Ronna McDaniel’s re-election are doing so because they are being threatened or bribed."

On the flip side, McDaniel's supporters are accusing Dhillon and her supporters of "doxxing" the emails of GOP officials supporting McDaniel, soliciting people around the country to message them and coerce them to switch their vote. “We’re getting these emails about doxxing — she sent out every RNC member’s emails numerous times across the country,” one RNC member said, according to The Beast. “We’re getting emails from people who don’t think we should vote for Ronna, but the thing is, none of these people have a vote.”

All of this comes as MyPillow CEO and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell announces his own bid for RNC chair — although there is no evidence of any interest for his campaign among Republican committee officials who will elect the leadership.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Raffensperger aide begged Mark Meadows to end infamous Trump phone call: texts