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California Republican Party Chair Corrin Rankin said Wednesday she would not run for reelection next spring following the party’s historic losses in last week’s midterms.
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“This decision comes with tremendous gratitude and pride in what we have built. Leadership is not simply about holding a position. It is about leaving an organization stronger, better equipped, and more prepared for the future than when you found it,” Rankin wrote to delegates on Wednesday night. “Although I will not seek another term, my commitment to California, our Republican candidates, and the principles that brought me into public service remains unchanged.”
The state GOP’s legislative superminority could shrink even further after Republican Assembly incumbents Greg Wallis, Tri Ta, Leticia Castillo, Jeff Gonzalez, Josh Hoover and Sen. Tony Strickland lost their seats in last week’s election.
Both Assembly Minority Leader Alexandra Macedo and Senate Minority Leader Roger Niello faced razor-thin margins in their bids for reelection as of Thursday morning.
State GOP delegates elected Rankin chair in March 2025, making her the first Black woman to lead the party. Before then, she had served as party vice chair and as a state surrogate for President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024, helping shore up his support among Black voters in California.
Rankin’s term lasts through Feb. 28, 2027, after which the party will elect a new chair. In her letter, Rankin floated Strickland, who has reportedly begun telling fellow members that he would run for chair, as a replacement. Outgoing Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, and former governor candidate Steve Hilton have also been floated as potential candidates, according to a state GOP insider who was granted anonymity to discuss internal party discussions.
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After Rankin became chair last year, she pledged to keep the party “on offense” following its wins after Trump retook the White House in 2024.
As her term progressed, however, fundraising withered after legislative leaders severed a bundling agreement with the state party and Assemblymember Carl DeMaio urged donors to give to his organization, Reform California, directly.
In that time, the party briefly hired Tiffany Qualls as finance director for a four-month stretch in which the party failed to garner much cash. Before her firing in June, Qualls also pilfered donor data, which the party is currently suing her to recoup. In a counter lawsuit, Qualls said party officials including Rankin subjected her to racial and gender-based harassment, and asked the court to pause the arbitration process while it considered her counter-complaint.
Qualls requested last week to withdraw her counter-complaint after a judge struck it down for lack of good cause, according to court records.
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