NEW YORK (AP) — Both political parties are opening the new year confronting critical questions about the people and policies they want to embrace as the next election speeds into view.
The challenges are particularly urgent for Republicans, who hoped to enter 2023 with a secure grip on one, if not both, chambers of Congress. Instead, an underwhelming midterm election yielded only a thin House majority that will expose fierce intraparty divisions this week as California Rep. Kevin McCarthy fights for the speakership. And before the end of the month, the Republican National Committee must resolve a divisive leadership battle of its own.
A central figure in virtually everything is Donald Trump, the former president who transformed the GOP more than seven years ago and is still fighting to exert his will over Republicans in Congress, the RNC and Republican voters just as the next presidential primary season begins.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel acknowledged, in an interview, that her party’s greatest political challenge ahead may come from within as party leaders navigate Trump’s outsized role.
“There’s so much at stake we can’t afford to be divided heading into 2024,” McDaniel said, promising that the RNC would be neutral in the looming presidential nomination process. “If we are divided, we will lose.”

Apnews