Hats are already in the ring, whether the presumptive candidates know it or not, for the next leader of the Republican National Committee. Ronna McDaniel will be the second of three McLeadership candidates to be ousted following the departure of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. A full-time replacement will require an election with the RNC’s 168 committee members as the electorate.

Here are the names currently being thrown around to replace McDaniel:

Michael Whatley – A fairly MAGA-base unfriendly candidate (he worked for the Bush-Cheney campaign), Whatley’s primary claim to the role is his position on the 2020 election and mail-in ballots. He’s a Ronna McDaniel loyalist, and signed a letter in support of her last year, saying, “For me, it was not a close call. Every single time I called her, the answer was yes.” Whatley has been the RNC General Counsel under McDaniel, a position which has even led the RNC to support questionable election measures simply because they want to look like they’re “doing something.” And while Whatley has clerked before, he has never actually practiced law. This is strange until you realize McDaniel just appointed a flunkie, not a lawyer.

Lee Zeldin – Again, not all that MAGA friendly per se, but Zeldin certainly has his fans on the right, and is certainly connected with better big city fundraising networks than someone like Whatley. And boy does the RNC need cash. The problem, according to our sources, is some of the people who work around Zeldin. Perhaps not the sorts you’d want involved on a day-to-day level at the RNC. Mind you, from what we currently know about the building, it couldn’t get all that much worse. Zeldin would have fared better here had he leaned into Trump more during his New York gubernatorial race. Some say he might’ve beaten Kathy Hochul if he had.

KC Crosbie – An outside shot, but KC seems to be the only person about whom everyone has nothing bad to say. A Kentuckian but not a McConnell advocate, Crosbie has fundraising prowess and is fairly MAGA. She was the first RNC committee member to donate to Team Trump in 2016 and is well-liked amongst the members who would have to vote in this contest.

Julianne Murray – The GOP chairman from Delaware is tight with the Turning Point crowd. If Charlie Kirk had a candidate, Murray would probably be it. The “no-nonsense” America Firster has recently pursued Hunter Biden and is strong on election integrity issues. With the TPUSA connections, she’d surely be able to call on some fairly large donors. The only question is experience. Murray was only elected head of the Delaware GOP back in April 2023. That might put some people off.

Harmeet Dhillon – Dhillon ran against McDaniel last time and lost. She’s also probably the person I hear the worst things about on a daily basis, related to temperament, and perspective on the movement. In fact, I’ve had some not-so-nice run-ins with Harmeet myself, for which she has since apologized. Dhillon is one of those Marmite-style candidates. Her law firm does some good work, but also what some would suggest is some bad work. Laura Loomer can provide more details on that. She’s also got some fairly unsavory characters around her. Yes, Ron Coleman, I am talking about you. And remember, these guys have worked with McDaniel at the RNC for years. Honestly, this change might even be for the worse.

Some other names people are throwing around at the moment:

• Scott Pressler, the impressive grassroots activist;
• Charlie Kirk, the aforementioned founder of Turning Point USA;
• Johnny McEntee, the personnel impresario from Trump’s White House;
• Paul Dans, the America First stalwart running Heritage’s Project 2025;
• Caroline Wren, the finance-focused strategy leader;
• Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the 45th President;
• Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate;
• Mike Lindell, pillow magnate and election integrity obsessive.