Meet The Woman Who Could Help The Republicans Win In November

RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL loves the phrase “You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”

- Celeste Katz

It became a mantra after a seminal moment early in her career. At 24 she was already the head of her department at a political advertising firm, which was hiring a young man fresh out of college. He’d report to her, she learned, but he’d also make as much money as she did. She was nervous to confront the boss about the lopsided deal (“I didn’t know how to negotiate, and I didn’t know how to advocate for myself,” she says), but plunged ahead anyway. “I cried when I did it,” she admits. “I wouldn’t recommend that.” Nonetheless, she walked away with a $10,000 raise—and a priceless lesson about sticking up for herself.

Today McDaniel, 45, is supremely confident about asking for what she wants: Since January 2017, when she became the chair of the Republican National Committee, she has helped the party haul in well over $210 million, more than any previous RNC chair during a midterm election cycle. The Michigan-based mom of two has traveled more than 150,000 miles, visiting over half the states. But there’s no time to rest: Republicans are fighting to keep their hold on Congress in a November vote that is widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.

It’s easy to imagine McDaniel as one of those candidates in the arena. She’s deft at delivering GOP talking points (and talking up Trump) and unafraid to jab at Democrats (or the press), and she has the political pedigree (Mitt Romney is her uncle, and both her parents and two grandparents have run for office). But the ugliness of her mom’s 1994 U.S. Senate bid in Michigan doused any interest she might have had in making her own run. Instead she now puts her strategic chops to use behind the scenes for the GOP.