Illinois RNC Committeeman Race All About Trump
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally near Quincy in 2022.
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It’s the most insider election for an insider position decided by insiders at a party convention.
That’s how the Illinois Republican Party will select a new National Committeeman and National Committeewoman, the state’s two representatives on the Republican National Committee.
The current national committeeman, Richard Porter, and national committeewoman, Demetra DeMonte, are term limited from to continuing to serve on the RNC. (We’ll focus on the committeewoman race later this week.)
In Illinois, where Donald Trump lost the state by more than a million votes in both 2016 and 2020, GOP leaders in the state are seeking a path forward in the fall with Trump popular downstate and a drag on down ticket Republicans in the Chicago suburbs.
Three Republicans are seeking the position as a liaison between Trump’s GOP and the state party.
Dean White
Dean White of St. Charles, who owns a construction company, as served on the state central committee since 2022.
White, 55, wants to help grow Illinois’ electoral success, calling himself a “solutions provider.”
“I’m confident I can help find and recruit great Republican candidates,” he said. “I tend to listen to what the problems are, having more ears than mouth to start out with. I’ve got a pretty good memory of when you listen and find out what people’s attributes are and meeting people where they’re at instead of trying to get everybody to where I’m at.”
Attorney Mark Shaw of Lake Forest, who has spent 12 years on the state central committee and is a former chair of the Lake County GOP, is attempting to use his ties to Trump as a winning strategy with the GOP’s grassroots.
Shaw, 63, was a Trump delegate in 2016 and 2020 and is working as a “senior advisor” to the Trump campaign in 2024, mostly working on legal issues for the campaign.
He doesn’t see Trump as a liability in November.
“I don't know that he's going to be as big of a problem, and I'm not calling him a problem, ever, I don't know that he's going to be that big of a problem for the party this time," Shaw said. "Anybody that doesn't like the guy, that's kind of baked in. Just like how [people] like to argue that the base and the supporters of Donald Trump, no matter what he does or what happens to him, they're not gonna change their mind."
The state GOP convention later this month marks the first time since 2012 the GOP has had a contested race for national committeeman.
A nominating committee of 17 will interview candidates for the post at the GOP convention Memorial Day weekend in Collinsville and will recommend a candidate for the post to the full slate of convention delegates.
Mark Shaw
Both White and Shaw played down divides in the national Republican party, especially while Trump faces multiple criminal cases and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley continues to win double-digits in primaries around the country even though she suspended her campaign in March.
White says winning matters more than ideology.
“I think [Republican] core values, their right’s and wrongs, are in alignment,” he said. “To me, it’s how do we meet people where they put their feet on the ground? How do you get them to win in Chicago? Not, get them to think exactly the same as they do downstate. But if we can get Republicans to win in Chicago on their values. I don’t believe the core values are any different.”
Shaw said the GOP needs more of a connection to the grassroots to have the party on the same message from top to bottom.
"Many times, people that get on that level of the party get there because maybe they're big donors to the party financially or maybe they've held some elected office that puts them in a position that causes them to interact with the national party more," Shaw said. "I'm not sure that you have as many people as we ought to have in the RNC that have actually been in the trenches and started out there. I think I bring a lot of know-how, a lot of connections to the [grassroots] level of the party so that I can be a spokesman for them at the national committee when we talk about broader policies for the country and how we can best serve the Republican Party."
Neither man had concerns that national GOP leadership has been infiltrated by the Trump campaign, including the installation of Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, as a national co-chair of the party.
Shaw said chairs of the RNC are often held by close allies of the president or nominee and often haven’t worked closely on down ballot campaigns previously.
Vince Kolber
"What is important is the policies that are being carried out and the programs that are being put in place," Shaw says. "From what I've seen, Lara Trump and [RNC co-chair] Michael Whatley have been listening very earnestly to the issues that need to be handled going into this election. They're quick to deal with lawfare, they're quick to deal with issues like ballot problems that are occurring. [They] are pushing this idea of early voting and making sure that we get our people to the polls and making sure that every single vote is counted."
A third candidate, businessman Vince Kolber of Chicago, is also seeking the spot. Kolber did not return multiple messages from The Illinoize.
The Illinois GOP selects their committeeman and committeewoman representatives at their party convention Memorial Day weekend in Collinsville.