At the California GOP’s Spring Training, Republican National Committee (RNC) Co-Chair Lara Trump hinted at an expansionist mood in former President Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign. The 2024 Republican presidential “map” may grow to include states like Minnesota and Virginia.
During a banquet on May 18, Ms. Trump revealed that the campaign was considering expanding its resources to these two states. Additionally, she mentioned a few other states they are keeping an eye on but did not reveal their names yet. This announcement comes as President Trump expressed his plans to flip Minnesota, a state long considered a stronghold of the Democrats, at a May 17 fundraising dinner in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Chris LaCivita, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, confirmed that Virginia was also in play during a private donor retreat held by the former president in Florida on May 4. Ms. Trump’s optimistic comments were shared during an upbeat conversation with Howard Hakes, an active Republican in California.
The RNC co-chair emphasized that there is “no daylight” between the RNC, now run by her and Michael Whatley, former North Carolina GOP Chair, and President Trump’s reelection campaign. Lara Trump took over as co-chair from Drew McKissick, the chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, in March 2024. Mr. Whatley replaced Ronna Romney McDaniel, a niece of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) first elected to RNC chair in 2017 after receiving backing from a recently elected President Trump.
The Spring Training concluded on May 19 at a Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, California, close to San Francisco. Election integrity emerged as a major theme throughout the weekend-long meeting. On Friday, Harmeet Dhillon, the RNC’s national committeewoman for California, discussed various legal battles Republicans are fighting over election laws and practices they perceive as being too permissive or prone to fraud.
Lara Trump also touched upon this topic during her address. She said that “the bulk of the staff” at the RNC headquarters is focused on election integrity issues. The GOP’s goal, she explained, is to have a 100,000-person-strong team of election integrity volunteers by November 5th, stating, “We can never repeat 2020 ever again. We’re never gonna do that,” eliciting applause from the audience.