SF Attorney Harmeet Dhillon Might Be Elected Chair of the Republican National Committee This Week

“San Francisco Values,” hmmm? Local attorney and longtime Republican gadfly Harmeet K. Dhillon is running against Ronna McDaniel in Friday’s race for RNC chair, but her reported “unity ticket” with the MyPillow Guy might doze her odds off.

The Republican party’s 2022 midterm election whiff, combined with Kevin McCarthy’s comical stumbling out of the gate to be House Speaker, have turned the traditional media tides to create a “GOP in Disarray” narrative. And that narrative is poison for Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDanield, severely weakened as she faces a tough reelection for that position this Friday at the RNC Winter Meeting in Dana Point, California.

So who’s challenging her?

Hey-o! That is San Francisco attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon, a Fox News regular, former vice chair of the California Republican Party, and a legal adviser in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, alongside the dripping liquid hair of Rudy Giuliani. SFist readers may recall her lawyerly activities of representing opponents of the Haight Street McDonald’s lot tent city, taking the case of mens’ rights Google bro James Damore, and trying to sue Berkeley for not letting Ann Coulter speak. But it absolutely helps Dhillon’s chances that she just got a glowing Time magazine writeup, which declares, “How Harmeet Dhillon Turned the Race for RNC Chair Into a Real Fight.”

Meanwhile, it absolutely hurts her chances that today, her spokesperson declared Dhillon would be running on a unity ticket with MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell.

So what are Dhillon’s odds? The Hill sizes it up: “Several letters have circulated over the last few months with more than 100 RNC members publicly supporting McDaniel, while Dhillon’s website for her campaign for RNC chair shows 28 endorsements from state chairs and RNC committee members,” that site notes. "Her website specifies that it’s a 'partial list.'"

Dhillon has never won a public election against a Democratic candidate. But she has won internal Republican elections for local, state, and national positions. And Friday’s vote is an internal Republican election, and a secret ballot at that.

Related: Over 56,000 People in San Francisco Voted for Trump [SFist]

Image: White House staff via Wikimedia Commons