Former Gov. Mike Huckabee: RNC lacks 'cohesive message'

Former Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee on Monday suggested the Republican National Committee (RNC) was in dire need of new leadership and a renewed message to bolster the GOP's political prospects in future elections.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has faced mounting calls for her resignation in the wake of the party's poor electoral performance earlier this months and reports of low fundraising numbers. GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, in particular, has insisted she ought to step down in the wake of a string of electoral defeats under her leadership and has launched a campaign to remove her from her post.

Speaking on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show on Monday, Huckabee declined to specifically endorse McDaniel's ouster, but insisted the RNC lacked the dynamism of past decades and that party leadership had largely failed to inspire its rank-and-file voters.

"I talked to some of the RNC members who are not happy with the way things are going. Whether it's a matter of new leadership, and it's time for Ronna [McDaniel], to step down and let someone else have it, that's for the RNC members to decide," he said. "But it's looking more and more like that there needs to be an infusion of new ideas and new leadership. Because right now, there's no cohesive message."

"One of the things that I think it's hurt Republicans most is that there hasn't been a coordinated message. Let me just go back a few years: when Haley Barbour was the chairman of the RNC, one of the most effective that I've ever worked with or known," he went on. "There was a great coordination between Haley Barbour, and then-Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and even before he was the speaker, Congressman Newt Gingrich, and it's why he became the speaker."

"And it was not just a coordinated message, but there was a coordinated sense of finance and direction," Huckabee recalled. "The RNC became a very important part of winning elections. I'm not seeing that right now. It seems like that we raise money, but we don't raise that much. But we don't have a message. There's not a clear, concise and cohesive message that Republicans can rally around and one that the American people will embrace and say, 'You know what, that's what I believe I'm going to support that.'"

McDaniel faced an intense leadership challenge earlier this year from former Trump campaign adviser Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, but ultimately managed to hold on to her position.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.