Mass. GOP ousts veteran Republican power player Ron Kaufman from RNC post

BURLINGTON, Massachusetts — Massachusetts Republicans have ousted the general chair of the Republican National Convention from his post as a national committeeman.

Ron Kaufman, a former treasurer for the Republican National Committee, was upset by Brad Wyatt in a narrow 37-35 vote taken at a Republican State Committee meeting on Saturday in the Boston suburb. Kaufman will continue serving as national committeeman through the July convention in Milwaukee. The RNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In rejecting Kaufman’s bid for another term, Massachusetts GOP activists ousted a veteran Republican power player and lobbyist who has long divided his time between his native Quincy and Washington, D.C. Kaufman advised Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential bid and made his name in politics working for George H.W. Bush. Kaufman declined in 2022 to seek reelection as RNC treasurer. He is also the chair of Republicans’ 2028 presidential convention.

Kaufman’s defeat is also a blow to Amy Carnevale, the party’s pro-Donald Trump chair, who on Saturday survived an effort by a more conservative faction of this deeply divided state party to oust her from her leadership post months before her term is set to expire. Under Carnevale and Kaufman’s leadership, Massachusetts was one of the many state parties that changed its delegate selection rules to benefit Trump in the Republican presidential primary. Carnevale has been working to rebuild the state party — and reingratiate it with the RNC — after infighting under the former chair cost Republicans their last two statewide offices and left the party hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.