Some of the biggest voices of the party’s right wing, including the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, a youthful group of pro-Trump conservatives, backed her effort.
But so did some of the most outspoken anti-Trump members of the R.N.C., who reasoned that Ms. Dhillon’s call for change best aligned with their efforts to move the party beyond the former president. The committee played a leading role in defending Mr. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and it funded his personal legal defense bills for months until he announced his candidacy in November.
Some members who oppose Mr. Trump worry that Ms. McDaniel, a staunch supporter of the former president, will use the committee to tip the scales in favor of his bid. Oscar Brock, a committee member from Tennessee, made a private appeal to members, tying Ms. McDaniel to Mr. Trump and saying it was “clearly time” for the party to move on from his leadership.
In an interview later, Mr. Brock said that he remained neutral in the fight for the Republican nomination, but that he was convinced Ms. McDaniel was beholden to the former president.
“My loyalty is to running an independent primary, and I want a chairperson who can do that,” he said.
Ms. Dhillon persuaded state-level party organizations to get involved in the fight. She earned endorsements from state parties in Washington and Nebraska with broadsides against Ms. McDaniel’s leadership. And in early January, the Alabama Republican Party’s steering committee announced a vote of no confidence in Ms. McDaniel.
“The grass roots, they’re the ones that knock on the doors, they work the polls, they put the time in on campaigns, and when we come up empty-handed, they’re just scratching their heads, saying, ‘What in the world?’” said Beth Campbell, a Republican committee member from Tennessee. “They all want change. They want to win, is the bottom line.”
