This Is the Woman Who Could Help Republicans Win in November

Ronna Romney McDaniel loves the phrase “You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”

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.

In a sit-down with Glamour, McDaniel talked about bringing more women into the Republican Party under a president who hasn’t (to put it lightly) always been well-spoken in regard to women and about whether we might see another Romney run for office.

Here are the highlights:

Glamour: You come from a political family, you were head of the Michigan GOP, but you’ve also been a full-time mom. How did you get here?

Ronna Romney McDaniel: I was on my PTA; I was room mom …. I was stay-home mom. [Then] we had a budget crisis in our state. One of the favorite teachers in our school got laid off. They couldn’t tell him if he was going to get his job back because the budget hadn’t been passed yet. You realize how things that are happening on your state level, your local level, affect your life…. I didn’t expect it would end here, but it’s an honor and a thrill.

Glamour: And now you’ve raised millions of dollars for the GOP. What drives you?

RM: A lot of it is doing my homework, [explaining why] it’s a good investment—and then not taking no for an answer…. People will blow you up. They’ll be like, “I’m not giving. I’m so mad at the party.” [You have to] listen. Take it in. Have a dialogue, and then say, “OK, let me tell you why you need to invest.”

Glamour: What is it like to work with President Trump? Some say he’s remaking the party, and others think he’s destroying it.

RM: I get along great with him. He and I have a very honest relationship; we have a great rapport…. I see him as a change agent [who] tapped into I think what a lot of people felt like was a frustration with Washington. So that’s where Trump transcended party. He was a deal maker, he’s a businessman…. He’s reached his hand out to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, trying to work across party lines.

Glamour: When he’s not calling them names on Twitter.

RM: Yes, I know—and then the next day he invites them over. That’s how he is.

Glamour: Do President Trump’s comments about women complicate your job? Even with you running the RNC, people still sometimes say the GOP is a party of “old white dudes.”

RM: There are certain voters who that’s an issue with, but if you go to Main Street, Iowa, or Indiana, or Missouri, where a lot of our battleground races are, most of the voters are thinking about their lives…. I think being a woman has actually helped me with fundraising. I was in Colorado [and] this one guy’s like, “I just think you’re cool, so I’m going to support you because I love that you’re a woman and I have a daughter your [age].” And [I’m] like, “I’ll take it. I’m a lot cooler than you think. Let’s write a bigger check.”

Glamour: President Trump has had some very public fights with your uncle Mitt Romney. It’s been reported that the President wanted you to drop “Romney” from your name. [The chairwoman’s Twitter page identifies her only as “Ronna McDaniel.”]

RM: It’s a ridiculous story. There is no person in the world, not even the President of the United States, who could say, “Change your name.” I want to make sure that the McDaniel doesn’t get left out, because the three people who are supporting me the most have that last name—and when your middle name’s Romney, sometimes people forget the McDaniel, and that’s just not good.

Glamour: The three people are your husband, son, and daughter. How is your job affecting your family?

RM: You have to have a spouse who supports you. I don’t care if you’re male or female. But the amount of hours I’m on the road and being away from the family—[he’s] pretty much a single dad four days a week. My husband works, [so it’s about] balancing raising our kids and doing it well. There are days where it’s a tough day for my kids and I’m not home, and it’s awful. We’re making it work. I actually cooked a dinner on Sunday and it wasn’t terrible. So that’s a huge success in my life.

Glamour: Did you grow up loving politics?

RM: I hated politics. In a political family, you don’t realize what you’re learning through osmosis [at the] dinner table…. It gets heated and people are fighting, and you’re like, “What is wrong with my family? Can’t we just talk about normal, nice things?” My mom’s Senate race [was] brutal, and I just really soured on politics after that. I just didn’t like the negativity, and most of it was from our own party.

Glamour: What if one day your daughter said, “Mom, I’m running for president”?

RM: I’d be so proud of her. [It’s] hard to run for office. A lot of people don’t want to subject themselves to the scrutiny, [but] we’re only going to get the level of service that we deserve if good people step up and run. And I think my daughter would be a great president.

In a pivotal election year, Glamour is keeping track of the historic number of women running (and voting) in the midterm elections. For more on our latest midterm coverage, visit www.glamour.com/midterms.

Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.

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