Trump and the Party-in-Organization: Presidential Control of National Party Organizations

Abstract

The election of Donald Trump not only placed a political outsider in the center of power in America’s federal government, it also put him in a dominant position within the Republican Party as a national organization. While political scientists have traditionally described the parties’ national committees as inconsequential but impartial service providers, scholars have also long argued that incumbent presidents have considerable control over their party’s national committee. In this article, I explore the nature of presidential power over the party-in-organization and whether Trump can take advantage of his control over the Republican National Committee (RNC). I show that presidential domination over the party-in-organization is based on the president’s ability to nominate and replace the national committee’s chair and that presidents have used this power to push their committees to promote both their preferred policy positions and themselves. I argue this means Trump has the ability to use the RNC to promote the GOP as “his” party, including during a potential primary challenge for his renomination in 2020.