RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel says Ramaswamy attacked her because he needed a ‘headline’

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel chalked up GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s comments about her running the committee as him needing a “headline.”

“Listen, he’s at 4%, he needs a headline,” Mrs. McDaniel told Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney Thursday.”

Mr. Ramaswamy attacked Mrs. McDaniel on the debate stage in Miami Wednesday night, blaming her for the GOP losing certain elections on Tuesday that he thinks they should’ve won.

“If you want to come on stage tonight and you want to look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you resign I will turn over, yield my time to you,” he said, directing it to Mrs. McDaniel, who spoke ahead of the event.

Mr. Ramaswamy brought up that since she became chair in 2017, Republicans have lost seats in Congress in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

“I think there’s something deeper going on in the Republican Party here and I’m upset about what happened last night,” he said about Republicans losing elections in Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio.

“We have a party of losers at the end of the day, there’s a cancer in the Republican establishment,” he said.

Mrs. McDaniel said on Fox that the RNC “doesn’t do state races.”

“We’re a federal committee, so we weren’t involved in those races on Tuesday. I know Vivek’s kind of newer to the party. He voted for Obama, so he may not know that,” she said.

It wasn’t only Mr. Ramaswamy who was upset with Tuesday’s off-year election results. Republicans on social media were also calling for her to resign.

“What, exactly, does Ronna McDaniel do, besides lose? The only thing she SHOULD do is RESIGN. Effective immediately,” former Fox News contributor Monica Crowley wrote on X Tuesday.

Another account posted an unflattering photo of Mrs. McDaniel with the text “Fire Ronna Romney NOW” written on it, calling her family roots (she is Mitt Romney’s niece) to attention.

“A record number of failures,” the caption read.

Mrs. McDaniel defended her career on Fox, saying she delivered Michigan while serving as Michigan chair, won back the House, and got 4 million more Republicans to vote.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the familial relationship between Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and her uncle, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.