Last week, due to declining health, Senator John McCain was forced to step down as chair of the International Republican Institute. McCain had served in the role for 25 years.
McCain will be replaced by Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK). According to the Institute, McCain will remain a member of the board.
In addition to the election of Senator Sullivan as chair, IRI appointed the following new board members:
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) chairs the Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and is a combat veteran. She was the first woman to serve in federal elected office from Iowa and the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is a member of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations and is a retired Colonel in the Air Force Reserves. He served as an IRI board member from 2010-2012.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Appropriations, and was a candidate in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.
Governor Mitt Romney is the Republican senatorial nominee for Utah (2018), and was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012. He served as governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007.
General H.R. McMaster is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and previously served as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump (2017-2018). General McMaster retired from the military as a three-star general after 34 years of service.
David Kramer is a senior fellow at Florida International University’s Green School of International and Public Affairs. He served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under President George W. Bush and as president of Freedom House from 2010-2014.
Ambassador Kristen Silverberg is the managing director of the Institute of International Finance. She served U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2008-2009, and as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 2005-2008.
Frances Townsend is an executive vice president for worldwide government, legal and business affairs at MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, Inc. Townsend previously served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council.
Ambassador Gaddi Vasquez is senior vice president of government affairs for Edison International and Southern California Edison. He previously served as director of the U.S. Peace Corps and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies in Rome.
Senators Sullivan, Ernst, Graham and Rubio join Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX) as sitting members of Congress on IRI’s board.
In addition to the election of the new IRI board members, board member Randy Scheunemann has been elected vice chairman. Former vice chairman James Kolbe will remain a member of the board.
According to Mother Jones Magazine, “the International Republican Institute (IRI), is supposed to focus on nonpartisan, grassroots democratization efforts overseas. But in Haiti and other countries, such as Venezuela and Cambodia, the institute — which, though not formally affiliated with the GOP, is run by prominent Republicans and staffed by party insiders — has increasingly sided with groups seeking the overthrow of elected but flawed leaders who are disliked in Washington.”
McCain has not been seen in public since the Senate’s 2017 Christmas break. Neither has the senator been heard from except in tweets and press releases.
He is suffering from an aggressive and fatal brain cancer.