RNC chair Ronna McDaniel says ‘successful’ Virginia get-out-the-vote effort a ‘test run’ for 2022 midterms

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for Nov. 5

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com.

EXCLUSIVE: LAS VEGAS -- Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel says the GOP’s get-out-the-vote efforts in this week’s elections in Virginia were just a taste of things to come in the 2022 midterms, when her party aims to win back majorities in the House and Senate.

"Virginia was a great test run for next year and it was successful," McDaniel said in an interview with Fox News on Friday night, as she attended the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas.

GOP SEES YOUNGKIN'S VIRGINIA VICTORY AS BLUEPRINT FOR 2022 MIDTERMS

"Virginia was a great test run for next year and it was successful."

— Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee chairwoman

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel speaks with Fox News at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting, in Las Vegas, Nov. 5, 2021. (Fox News )

"We had 120 staff on the ground. We had 13 offices and we were really, really, effective at finding unexpected votes. We found 100,000 unexpected voters, which was a key factor in winning."

The RNC’s efforts helped Republican Glenn Youngkin become the commonwealth's governor-elect after he narrowly defeated former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a state that President Biden carried by 10 points just one year ago and where the GOP hadn’t won statewide in a dozen years.

The closely watched contest in Virginia, a one-time battleground state that’s still very competitive between the two major parties, was seen as a key bellwether ahead of next year’s midterms.

REPUBLICANS SAY DOWN BALLOT VICTORIES THIS WEEK ROADMAP FOR NEXT YEAR'S ELECTIONS

Turnout soared in the Virginia election compared to the previous gubernatorial contest four years ago, and the RNC was not alone in getting out the vote.

The rival Democratic National Committee (DNC) noted that it invested nearly $6 million in cash and direct contributions in the race, which a DNC official said was part of "the committee’s largest-ever investment in the commonwealth in history. While Terry McAuliffe came up short … these investments clearly paid off."

"Democratic turnout was strong across the board, with McAuliffe winning almost 50% more votes than last time he was on the ballot in 2013 and even exceeded the enthusiastic turnout for Ralph Northam in 2017," the DNC official continued. "We believe this was in large part due to the Democratic Party of Virginia’s strong coordinated campaign, which was largely funded by the DNC, and the DNC’s distributed organizing program."

GOP CATTLE CALL DRAWS EIGHT POTENTIAL 2024 CONTENDERS

McDaniel, in her interview with Fox News, noted the RNC’s organizing efforts in Virginia were just an appetizer for the 2022 contests from coast to coast, and that the effort was already under way.

"We’re already doing voter registration. We’re already building up our staff across the country. We already have 300 staff across the country. We’re opening engagement centers in Hispanic, Asian, and African-American communities," McDaniel said. "This is already beginning. It will just be a lot bigger scale than Virginia. But the RNC’s already on the ground everywhere."

McDaniel spoke hours after a robust jobs report showed the U.S. economy adding more than a half-million jobs last month and hundreds of thousands more than originally reported for August and September.

President Biden said Friday morning at the White House that "there’s a lot more to be done. We still have to tackle the costs that American families are facing," adding "this recovery is faster, stronger, fairer and wider than almost anyone could have predicted."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But McDaniel, citing statistics, argued that "this recovery is being driven by Republican governors and Republican leaders. Joe Biden has done everything he can to hurt it."