RNC’s McDaniel launches podcast highlighting Republicans outside of Washington

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel is launching a podcast to highlight GOP leaders outside of Washington.

The first episode of the podcast, titled “Real America,” is being released Wednesday and features South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Later guests will include Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“America is an amazing country filled with wonderful people who do incredible things, but too often the media and liberal politicians ignore big parts of our nation and the people who make it work,” McDaniel said in a statement obtained exclusively by The Hill. “So I’m thrilled to speak with these amazing leaders and policymakers in our party who solve real problems every day, and help spread their message far and wide.”

Noem will discuss, among other things, her handling of the coronavirus pandemic in her state.

While Noem and other Republicans have held up South Dakota as an example of a state that declined to implement strict restrictions, Democrats have panned Noem’s decisions as too lax in the face of a lethal pandemic.

“Republican leaders, they stood up, they fought for their freedoms. And we have the perfect testimony of everything the Republican Party says that it believes,” Noem said in a statement. “We did it this year and we’ve shown that it works, and it really does create opportunities for the American dream.”

The RNC said in a press release that other guests will discuss “how conservative policy has made a difference in people’s lives, as well as capture their personal stories and share what being a Republican means to them.”

The podcast represents another opportunity for the RNC to tout its message heading into the 2022 midterms, where control of both chambers of Congress and a slew of governorships will be up for grabs.

Noem, Abbott and Pompeo are all also potential White House contenders in 2024.