2022 and 2024 elections top agenda at this week's RNC summer meeting

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We still have more than three years to go until the next presidential election, but Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel says early moves by some of the cities hoping to host the 2024 GOP presidential nominating convention are already underway.

"I know that seems so long away, but those requests for proposals and cities getting out there to bid for that process is happening right now," McDaniel noted in an exclusive interview with Fox News to preview the party's annual summer meeting.

EARLY 2024 MOVES ALREADY UNDERWAY 

Among the panels meeting this week is the RNC’s site selection committee for the 2024 convention, which will gather after being formally selected. And among the cities interested in holding the 2024 convention is Nashville, Tenn., where this week’s summer meeting is being held.

The RNC will also vote to reinstate and announce the membership of the committee that will make recommendations on the 2024 GOP presidential primary and caucus calendar.

There’s plenty of talk – and drama – among Democrats to alter the 2024 presidential nominating calendar, with Nevada Democrats recently passing a law to leapfrog their state ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire to become the lead-off nominating contest. But McDaniel says there’s no such drama when it comes to the next GOP presidential primary and caucus calendar.

MCDANIEL SAYS NO ‘CHATTER’ BY RNC MEMBERS TO ALTER 2024 PRIMARY CALENDAR

"I’m definitely not hearing chatter from our members to change the calendar," the RNC chair said Thursday as she was interviewed during a stop in New Hampshire, the state that for a century has held the first primary in the race for the White House.

"We’re going to let the nominating committee do its work, and then we’ll let them present their report and then members will ultimately decide, but it’s fair to say that we’re not hearing buzz around that with the RNC members right now," McDaniel said.

The national party’s committees that will oversee the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary and general election debates will also be meeting.

But McDaniel emphasized that while 2024 is definitely on the radar, the immediate concern is winning back majorities in the House and Senate in next year’s midterm elections. The Democrats hold razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress.

"I don’t think 2024 happens for Republicans if we don’t win in 2022," she stressed. 

Pointing to the wide-ranging election and campaign finance reform bill congressional Democrats are aiming to pass, McDaniel warned, "If they (the Democrats) federalize elections, it’s going to be really hard for Republicans to win nationally. So we have to win 2022 – five seats away in the House, one seat away in the Senate. Then we can talk about 2024."

McDaniel also pointed to inflation and the rise in crime in urban areas across the country as among the "issues that resonates across the country" with suburban voters who helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election but drifted from the GOP in the 2018 midterms and last November’s elections.

An RNC committee on election integrity that’s been meeting the past months will also report on its findings this week. 

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Moves by numerous states across the country to relax restrictions on voting by mail last year due to serious health concerns of voting in person amid the coronavirus pandemic led to a surge in absentee balloting, which was heavily criticized by then-President Trump. The former president continues to make unsubstantiated claims that his 2020 loss to President Biden was due to "massive fraud."

The RNC mounted a large legal effort last year to counter to push to broaden access to voting by mail, and McDaniel emphasized that possibility of "removing safeguards to the election heading into 2022" is "the thing that I’m most concerned about."