Mitt Romney's niece Ronna McDaniels just won a fourth term as chair of the Republican National Committee. The vote wasn't particularly close, she got 111 votes, California attorney Harmeet Dhillon got 51, and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell got 5.
This was a win for Donald Trump who had supported McDaniels, and a loss for Ron DeSantis who supported Dhillon. Those who get to vote for the chair are the party stalwarts, people who've spent the better part of a lifetime being active in Republican Party affairs and are elected to the RNC by the party in each state.
I was inclined to agree with DeSantis that new blood at the RNC was needed, given the party's ho-hum performance at the last midterm when a red wave was predicted but materialized only in Florida. Obviously two-thirds of the apparatchik electorate thought otherwise.
Most of us don't become party activists, don't make the party the organizing principle of our lives. The people who just reelected McDaniel have done exactly that. In their state they are Mr. or Ms. Republican.
The activists of both major parties are not particularly in tune with the grass roots for whom being a Republican or Democrat is like rooting for the local NFL team. Something done one afternoon while spending the rest of the week getting on with life.
