On Friday Reince Priebus was re-elected to a second two year term as Chairman of the Republican National Committee in a 166 to 2 vote of the members of the Republican National Committee.
No other candidates were on the ballot. The two dissenting votes were cast for Maine National Committeeman Mark Willis by members of the Maine delegation. On Thursday, Willis failed to secure the support of two committeemen from three states he needed to have his name officially placed on the ballot.
Priebus made several promises in a speech he delivered shortly before his re-election at the RNC winter meetings being held in Charlotte, North Carolina:
The task before us is transforming the party—to be a force from coast to coast... We have an opportunity and responsibility to shape the GOP of the next generation.
It’s time to stop looking at elections through the lenses of battleground states. We have four years until the next presidential election, and being a blue state is not a permanent diagnosis. Simple outreach a few months before an election will not suffice. In fact, I think we should just stop talking about reaching out, and start working on welcoming in. Political support is cultivated over time not collected on Election Day.
We are dropping the red and blue state analysis.
I’m tired of playing defense. So let’s get on offense and stay on offense.
Priebus also promised to catch up and beat the Democrats on the technology front, but failed to offer any specifics on how he plans to overcome the huge current gap:
We need to empower, equip and train our candidates, volunteers, and operatives. Whether it's a college activist recruiting volunteers in Pasadena or a small businesswoman running for town council in New Jersey. Let's host Skype-based training sessions and Google hangouts on campaign strategy, fundraising, door-to-door advocacy, and digital tools... In the digital space, we don't want just to keep up. We want to seize the lead.