RNC chair on GOP mission going forward: ‘Make sure … Trump voters become Republican voters’

EXCLUSIVE – Republican National Committee RNC Chair Mike Whatley says his job in the 2025 elections and 2026 legislatures is simple.

“It’s really critical for us to make sure that Trump voters become Republican voters,” Whatley said in an exclusive national digital interview with Fox News on the sidelines of the RNC’s winter meeting, which is being held at the capital of the country.

Republicans enjoyed big wins in the November election, with President-elect Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris to retake the White House, the GOP left control of the Senate to Democrats and kept their razor-thin majority in the House.

Whatley, who was interviewed Thursday on the eve of the RNC’s formal vote for the chairman to continue in his post leading the party’s national committee, said the GOP needs to “cement the gains” made in the 2024 election.

RNC CHAIR REVEALS WHAT ROLE TRUMP WILL PLAY IN CAMPAIGN AHEAD

“We’re going to go right back to the basics that we had this election cycle, which is getting out the vote and protecting the ballot,” Whatley stressed.

The RNC chairman noted “the lessons we learned.” the 2024 cycle “about going after low-propensity voters, making sure we’re reaching all voters and bringing in new communities,” which he said helped Republicans make “historic gains among African-American voters, among Asian voters, among Hispanic voters, young voters and women voters.”

Speaking a couple of days before the president-elect’s inauguration, Whatley stressed that once Trump is in the White House, “we’ll go right back to the RNC. We’ll roll up our sleeves and get to work. We’ve got a couple of gubernatorial races … which we will work on on the 25th”.

HOUSE GOP CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE CHAIR MAKES 2026 PREDICTION

But Whatley said “everything is focused on the 26th,” when the party will defend its House and Senate majorities, “because that will determine, from an agenda perspective, whether we have two years to work or four . And America needs us to have a four-year agenda.”

“What we’re going to do is make sure we register voters,” Whatley said. “We’re going to…communicate with the people we need to go out to.”

Pointing to the 2024 presidential election, he said “it’s the same fundamentals.”

But he noted that “it’s not just seven battleground states” and that the 2026 contests “will definitely be a very intense midterm election cycle.”

While Democrats would disagree, Whatley described today’s GOP as “a party of common sense … this is a party that will fight for every American family and for every American community.” .

REPUBLICAN SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN EXPLAINS HIS 2026 MISSION

Referring to former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump has nominated to serve in his second administration’s cabinet, Whatley noted “the fact that we have two former Democratic presidential candidates who will serve in the president’s cabinet. That shows you that this is an agenda of common sense, a team of common sense, with which we will move forward.”

Last March, when Trump clinched the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, he nominated Whatley to succeed. Ronna McDaniel as chairman of the RNC. Whatley, a longtime Trump ally and strong supporter of Trump’s election integrity efforts, had served as RNC general counsel and chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party.

In December, Trump asked Whatley to continue through the 2026 cycle as RNC chair.

“I think we’ll be able to talk when we need to talk,” Whatley said when asked if his lines of communication with Trump will be limited now that the president-elect is back in the White House. “We’re going to support the president and his agenda. That doesn’t change. What changes is his ability from the White House to actually implement the agenda that he’s been campaigning for.”

VANCE EXPANDS TOP DOLLAR FUNDRAISING FOR TRUMP INAUGURATION

Trump is term-limited and will not be able to seek re-election in 2028. Vice President Elect Senator JD Vance will likely be considered the frontrunner for the 2028 GOP nomination.

Whatley reiterated what he told Fox News Digital in December, that the RNC will remain neutral in the upcoming race for the GOP nomination and that the party “has an incredible bench.”

“Think about the talent on the Republican side of the aisle right now, our governors, our senators, our members of Congress, the people who will serve in this administration. I love the fact that the Republican Party is built to have a candidate great for ’28,” he noted.

Unlike the DNC, that the 2024 cycle turned the traditional one upside down calendar of presidential nominations, the RNC made no major changes to its primary lineup, keeping the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries as its first two contests.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Asked about the 2028 schedule, Whatley reiterated on Fox News that “I haven’t had any conversations with anyone who wants to change the schedule, so we’ll wait and see how it looks as we go forward. We’re at the RNC meetings this week and have several conversations with people, but that’s not a big push.”

“I don’t think changing the calendar really helped the Democrats,” Whatley argued. “And I think us making sure we’re working our system the way we always have is going to be critical.”