RNC weighing resolution to declare Trump ‘presumptive nominee’

by Julia Mueller - 01/25/24 5:21 PM ET

A draft resolution before the Republican National Committee (RNC) would, if approved, label former President Trump as the party’s presumptive nominee for 2024.

The Dispatch first reported that David Bossie, an RNC committee member from Maryland, submitted a resolution that aims to declare Trump “as our presumptive 2024 nominee for the office of President of the United States” and kick the RNC into “full general election mode welcoming supporters of all candidates as valued members of Team Trump 2024.”

Trump has secured only 32 delegates at this early point in the presidential nominating cycle, out of 1,215 needed to win the nomination, but he and his allies are touting his back-to-back wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary this month, and pointing to his front-runner status in polling in the states ahead.

“Resolutions, such as this one, are brought forward by members of the RNC. Chairwoman [Ronna] McDaniel doesn’t offer resolutions,” RNC spokesperson Keith Schipper said in a statement to The Hill.

“This will be taken up by the Resolutions Committee and they will decide whether to send this resolution to be voted on by the 168 RNC members at our annual meeting next week,” Schipper said.

CNN and NBC News also confirmed the draft resolution.

The RNC is holding its winter meeting in Las Vegas next week.

Bossie, who reportedly submitted the draft, is a close Trump ally.

The draft cites, among other factors, Trump’s wins in Iowa and New Hampshire in arguing that “all evidence negates the possibility of a mathematical path forward to the 2024 Republican nomination by any candidate other than President Trump, our presumptive nominee.”

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McDaniel also said after Trump’s New Hampshire victory that she doesn‘t see a path forward for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who’s now in a one-on-one with the former president after other top candidates dropped out.

“We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump, and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden,” McDaniel said.

Haley and her campaign, on the other hand, have been hitting back against questions about whether her New Hampshire showing was enough to propel her onward, stressing that this race isn’t over.

“America doesn’t have coronations. We have elections. Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party’s nominee, not Washington insiders,” her campaign said in a Thursday response to The Dispatch’s report.