Category Archives: Republican

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican and die-hard ally of former President Donald J. Trump, was exasperated with her colleagues as she left the House floor last Thursday evening.

I dont know if its sunk in this place around here, Ms. Greene vented as she headed for the elevators and then for Manchester, N.H., where she was stumping for the former president. Ive been telling everyone that President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party; hes going to be our presidential nominee. Its time for all Republicans to get behind his policies.

If it hadnt sunk in yet, it has now.

After Mr. Trump won the New Hampshire primary by 11 percentage points on Tuesday night following his steamrolling victory in the Iowa caucuses, the small segment of Republicans in Congress who had tried to distance themselves from him, ignore him, cast doubt on his staying power or condemn him have begun swiftly falling into line behind him. And this time, it is happening even faster than it did in 2016, when Mr. Trump first subsumed his party.

In the Senate, at least 29 Republicans more than half the conference have now endorsed Mr. Trump, compared with zero for the lone Republican challenger still standing, former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who vowed on Tuesday night to carry on with her campaign despite outlining no clear path to victory.

In the Republican-controlled House, which has acted as Mr. Trumps sword and shield, vulnerable Republicans who represent districts President Biden won in 2020 are speed walking to the Trump bandwagon, where their MAGA-loving colleagues are greeting them with an I told you so.

Two of them, Representatives Brandon Williams and Nick LaLota of New York, said that Mr. Trump was the partys inevitable nominee and that they fully supported the voters choice. Representative John Duarte, a California Republican whose district Mr. Biden won in 2020 by almost 11 points, told Axios that he expected to ultimately endorse Donald Trump for president.

Tim Miller, who worked as a top adviser to former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, said it wasnt hard to understand why.

Trump slaughtered Nikki Haley among self-identified Republicans last night, he said. Republicans want Trump. The politicians arent fighting it anymore. Its what their voters want, and they have given up on any pretense of fighting their impulses or trying to lead them a different direction.

The dynamic could have an immediate impact on the agenda in Congress, where Republicans and Democrats have been grasping for an elusive compromise to pair a clampdown on migration at the southern border with an aid package for Ukraine. Mr. Trump has savaged the emerging deal as too weak on immigration, and as lawmakers line up behind his candidacy, they appear more unlikely to defy him on his signature issue particularly in the Republican-controlled House.

And in the Senate, where top Republicans have been split over Mr. Trumps candidacy, resistance is melting away. Perhaps the most surprising lawmaker to join the growing queue of Trump endorsers on Tuesday night was Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, who is one of three lawmakers vying to succeed Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the partys leader.

I am proud of our accomplishments in President Trumps first term, Mr. Cornyn wrote in a post on social media that omitted any praise of the candidate himself but called him the Republican voters choice. His endorsement came just months after he told The Houston Chronicle that Trumps time has passed him by, and that a successful general election candidate needed to appeal to voters beyond the MAGA base.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican who has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump, took a similar approach on Wednesday, withholding any accolades for the former president but conceding that he appeared to be marching toward the G.O.P. nomination. Mr. Thune told reporters that Mr. Trump was in a commanding position, and Ive said all along Ill endorse the nominee. So if hes the nominee, Ill do what I can to help the team win the presidency.

Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming and the No. 3 Senate Republican who is also in the quiet Senate race for party leader, stated plainly earlier this month: We need Donald Trump back in the White House.

Mr. McConnell himself has been silent, telling reporters at a news conference ahead of the New Hampshire primary that everyone was watching New Hampshire with great interest, but saying nothing on Wednesday after Mr. Trump won.

The rush to fall in line, yet again, has a surreal yet inevitable quality this time around. It has been eight years since Mr. Trump first vanquished 16 other candidates in the Republican primary, and was eventually embraced by the very G.O.P. lawmakers who had expressed deep concerns about his ability to serve as commander in chief. It has been three years since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, when many Republicans who feared for their lives that day initially blamed Mr. Trump for the violence but quickly reversed course and defended him.

I really would have thought that Jan. 6 would have been a clean break and Im surprised that its not, said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia. I dont get it.

Democrats have rushed to capitalize on the dynamic, arguing that voters will punish Republicans who ally themselves with Mr. Trump and cost the party its House majority.

Donald Trump called it when he said that Republicans across the country would all bend the knee and declare their fealty to him no matter how toxic he is, Viet Shelton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said. Now were watching it happen in real time as party leaders are pressuring candidates across the country to fall in line.

But Republicans appear to have concluded, once again, that it is too difficult to forge a viable path in G.O.P. politics that does not include a tight embrace of Mr. Trump.

Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, beat a Trump-backed candidate in 2022 thanks, at least in part, to the backing of Ms. Haley, who campaigned with her. After Jan. 6, Ms. Mace claimed that all of Mr. Trumps accomplishments had been wiped out by his behavior during the mob attack. In response, Mr. Trump called her a grandstanding loser.

As she has tried to plot her own political future, Ms. Mace has wrestled for months with how to deal with the pesky Trump issue. Ill support the nominee thats what I say, she said in April, when discussing how to triangulate around Mr. Trump, whom she did not want to support. And then I shut up.

That was then.

A day before the New Hampshire primary, Ms. Mace said she was backing Mr. Trump for president. On Tuesday night, she showed up with her Havanese dog, Liberty, at the Trump campaign headquarters in Charleston to celebrate what she called the historic New Hampshire win!

Senator Susan Collins of Maine was among the few Republican senators who said that she did not see herself ever endorsing Mr. Trump, going so far as to commend Ms. Haley for staying in the race.

The more people see her, since she appears to be the only alternative to Donald Trump right now, the more impressed they will be, Ms. Collins said on Wednesday. But even she declined to formally endorse Ms. Haley, saying she was personal friends with many of the other Republican presidential candidates who have since dropped out of the race.

On the right, though, Mr. Trump also was quickly coalescing the support of the tiny group of lawmakers who had tried experimenting with an alternative. Representative Bob Good of Virginia, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, had endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for president. But within minutes of Mr. DeSantiss pulling the plug on his own bid ahead of the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Good rushed to right that wrong.

It is my privilege to provide my complete and total endorsement for Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States, Mr. Good wrote online. President Trump was the greatest president of my lifetime, and we need him to reinstate the policies that were working so well for America.

Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, who campaigned for Mr. DeSantis through the bitter end, was inching his way back into the fold on Tuesday night.

Trump supporters rightly just want their country back and he listens to them, he wrote online. Its his core strength.

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After Early Primary Victories, Republicans in Congress Fall in Line Behind Trump - The New York Times

Arizona Republican U.S. senate candidate Kari Lake, arrives for an evening rally with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, during the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary on Tuesday. David Goldman/AP hide caption

Arizona Republican U.S. senate candidate Kari Lake, arrives for an evening rally with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, during the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary on Tuesday.

The head of the Arizona Republican Party resigned Wednesday following the release of a surreptitiously recorded conversation of him seemingly trying to bribe Kari Lake to stay out of this year's U.S. Senate race.

A 10-minute audio recording, published by the Daily Mail of London on Tuesday, revealed a conversation between Lake, a Trump loyalist who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Arizona in 2022, and Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit. In it, DeWit appears to offers Lake various deals to be put on a company payroll, or financial compensation in exchange for taking "a pause for a couple of years" from running for public office.

"There are very powerful people who want to keep you out, and what they're willing to do is put their money where their mouth is in a big way," DeWit said.

It's not illegal, or unheard of, for top party officials to attempt to clear the field of unfavorable candidates in order to pave the way for a preferred alternative. In the audio recording, DeWit raised concerns about Lake's ability to fundraise enough money to win the U.S. Senate race, as well as former President Donald Trump's ability to win another election and by association, Lake's own electability.

"I'm not even sure Trump can win again," DeWit said. "I don't know that he can win."

But DeWit also appeared well aware of the optics of attempting to buy off Lake, a MAGA firebrand with a national profile. In the recording, he repeatedly cast himself as a messenger for powerful people "back East" and asked for Lake's discretion.

"This conversation never happened," DeWit said.

"If you say no, which is fine, it's your choice, don't tell people," he added.

In this file photo, former Arizona State Treasurer Jeff DeWit steps into an elevator at Trump Tower on Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. Arizona Republicans selected DeWit to be the party's chairman in 2023. On Wednesday, he resigned amid a seeming bribery scandal with Republican U.S. senate candidate Kari Lake. Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption

In this file photo, former Arizona State Treasurer Jeff DeWit steps into an elevator at Trump Tower on Nov. 15, 2016, in New York. Arizona Republicans selected DeWit to be the party's chairman in 2023. On Wednesday, he resigned amid a seeming bribery scandal with Republican U.S. senate candidate Kari Lake.

In a statement released Wednesday, DeWit accused Lake of being the Daily Mail's unidentified source. He denied he attempted to bribe Lake, and instead characterized the conversation as "an open, unguarded exchange between friends" that Lake recorded in a violation of his trust.

DeWit also said the audio recording provided to the Daily Mail was "selectively edited." By his own characterization, DeWit was advising Lake to postpone her U.S. Senate campaign and instead focus on running for governor again in 2026.

"It was a suggestion made in good faith, believing it could benefit both her future prospects and the party's overall strategy," DeWit said. "The release of our conversation by Lake confirms a disturbing tendency to exploit private interactions for personal gain."

DeWit went on to raise concerns that Lake may have a trove of secret recordings from conversations with other GOP officials, including Trump.

In this file photo from 2022, then-Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, right, speaks as former President Donald Trump listens during a rally in Oct. 2022, in Mesa, Ariz. Matt York/AP hide caption

In this file photo from 2022, then-Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, right, speaks as former President Donald Trump listens during a rally in Oct. 2022, in Mesa, Ariz.

"I question how effective a United States Senator can be when they cannot be trusted to engage in private and confidential conversations," he said.

Lake made it clear she has more recordings of conversations with DeWit in his statement, DeWit said Lake issued an ultimatum for him to resign Wednesday or "face the release of new, more damaging recordings."

A spokesperson for Lake's U.S. Senate campaign could not immediately be reached for comment. Lake, who has denied that she was the Daily Mail's source, publicly called for DeWit's resignation on Tuesday, telling KTAR that the audio was "reprehensible."

The leak of the conversation, which the Daily Mail reported took place in March 2023, comes ahead of a crucial juncture for the Arizona Republican Party. Trump will headline a fundraising rally for the Arizona GOP on Friday, the eve of the party's annual organizing meeting on Saturday.

The party will now have to choose a successor for DeWit, whose tenure as party chair has been marred by financial struggles following repeated statewide losses for the Republican Party under the previous chair, Kelli Ward.

Lake is the leading candidate to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona, having already secured Trump's endorsement when she announced her candidacy last fall. Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego is vying for his own party's nomination, while it remains unclear if incumbent Sen. Krysten Sinema a former Democrat turned independent will run for reelection.

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Kari Lake is running for U.S. Senate from Arizona. The AZGOP tried to stop her. - NPR

Former President Donald Trump acknowledges supporters at the end of a campaign rally on Jan. 14 in Concord, N.H. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Former President Donald Trump acknowledges supporters at the end of a campaign rally on Jan. 14 in Concord, N.H.

MANCHESTER, N.H. When New Hampshire voters head to the polls Tuesday, they will not only be picking a nominee.

Their choice between former President Donald Trump and his former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, will also send a big signal about their feelings on the future of the party.

Luke Rose, a 26-year-old casino dealer, was bowling with co-workers at Yankee Lanes, a downtown Manchester bowling alley. Between turns, he described the way he views the conflict as being between what he calls the "MAGA idealism" of Trump and traditional conservative values of Haley.

He's convinced Trump's way will win out.

"The message that will be sent [on Tuesday] is that Trump has officially been chosen. He's the one," Rose predicted. "And beyond that, we have to prepare ourselves, whether we like it or not, for a MAGA America or a Biden America."

Luke Rose, 26, spends evening bowling with some friends in Manchester, NH on Jan. 21, 2024. Franco Ordoez /National Public Radio hide caption

Luke Rose, 26, spends evening bowling with some friends in Manchester, NH on Jan. 21, 2024.

The tightening race has thrown a spotlight on the identity crisis within the Republican party and the debate between populism and small-government conservatism.

Ever since Donald Trump rode down the escalator in Trump Tower, the Republican party has been struggling to figure out what it stood for.

The more establishment, anti-Trump, forces within the party have long been clamoring for this choice, said Alex Conant, who helped lead Senator Marco Rubio's presidential campaign in 2016.

The choice is between Trump who is the embodiment of the new wave of conservative populism and Haley who more represents the limited government wing of the party that also supports strong foreign policy.

Conant acknowledges the party has already moved so far away from its traditional values since Trump's rise.

"The New Hampshire primary is the last hurdle for Donald Trump to demonstrate that the Republican Party is a populist party now," Conant said. "And that the limited government, traditional conservatives that Nikki Haley represents do not have any real power within the party."

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks to potential voters during a campaign stop in Hooksett, New Hampshire. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks to potential voters during a campaign stop in Hooksett, New Hampshire.

The Trump campaign says there was never any doubt whose party it is.

Jason Miller, a senior advisor on the campaign says Trump has not only unified the base behind him, but he's also brought in new coalition of voters and expanded the party.

"What President Trump has done to show that the populism and working class Americans now side with the Republican Party," Miller said.

Phil Palker says he's one of those Americans. The 59-year-transportation worker, and former Coast Guard navigator, says Trump changed the party and he evolved with the former president.

Trump connects with voters like him in a way that no other politicians have before, Palker said.

"You know, I was pretty stagnant Republican," he said. "But ever since Donald Trump started running in 2015, I think his message is revealing to who the party is."

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NH primary plays outsized role in determining future of the Republican Party - NPR

After former President Trump secured a win in the GOP primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, President Biden set his sights on a 2020 presidential rematch.

“It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. And my message to the country is the stakes could not be higher. Our Democracy. Our personal freedoms — from the right to choose to the right to vote. Our economy — which has seen the strongest recovery in the world since COVID. All are at stake,” Biden said in a Tuesday message to voters.

While Biden didn’t appear on the ballot in the Granite State, he nonetheless won the Democratic primary, with more than half of the state’s voters writing in his name on their ballots. He thanked voters for the “historic demonstration” of commitment to democracy and urged independent voters and Republicans to “join us as Americans.”

“Let’s remember. We are the United States of America. And there is nothing — nothing — we can’t do if we do it together,” Biden’s message said.

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ called the GOP race in Trump’s favor just after polls closed around 8 p.m. local time. With more than 170,000 votes pledged to him, Trump earned 54.6 percent support, beating out the only remaining GOP challenger, Nikki Haley, who earned 43.4 percent support.

Following his win, the Trump campaign emailed a statement that claimed “this race is over!” He thanked voters for their support throughout “every single witch hunt, raid, indictment and arrest.” In a celebratory speech after his win, Trump mocked Haley for her post-primary speech in which she said the race wasn’t over yet.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trump urged the former South Carolina governor to suspend her campaign, because if she stays in, “We have to keep wasting money instead of spending on Biden.”

Despite losing to Trump in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Haley said she wasn’t giving up yet.

“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation,” she said Tuesday. “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”

According to national polling averages, Trump has a 1.3-percent lead over Biden in a hypothetical general election match-up.

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Biden: Its clear Trump will be Republican nominee - The Hill

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, on Tuesday defied calls to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination, vowing to fight on after a second straight defeat at the hands of former President Donald J. Trump.

In rousing remarks, Ms. Haley painted a picture of a country and a world in disarray, casting herself as the choice for voters dissatisfied with both President Biden and Mr. Trump. She set up an epic showdown with Mr. Trump in South Carolina, where she is lagging far behind Mr. Trump in polls despite a home-state advantage.

New Hampshire is first in the nation it is not the last in the nation, she said as a loud wave of cheers and applause broke out across the room. She added that the race was far from over.

She added, Were going home to South Carolina.

Borrowing signature lines from her stump speeches, Ms. Haley, a United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump, noted how far she had come since the race opened, when she was polling at just over 2 percent. She congratulated Mr. Trump on what she described as a well-earned victory and declared that politics was not personal to her, but she also called herself a fighter.

And Im scrappy and now were the last ones standing next to Donald Trump, she added. Painting herself as an outsider, despite her insider rsum, she pledged to take on Mr. Trump and the political class behind him. She also took shots at the media, who she said saw his glide to the nomination as a foregone conclusion.

With the new urgency she has been flashing on the trail in the past week, Ms. Haley turned up the heat on the former president, the dominant front-runner in the Republican race, who is fighting 91 felony charges. Another Trump presidency would be just as bad for the country as another four years of Mr. Biden, she said.

She also took another dig at Mr. Trumps mental fitness and his 77 years of age, reminding voters how he had confused her for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and accused her of not providing security at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Someone in her rambunctious audience, which occasionally shouted encouraging interruptions, yelled, Geriatric!

With Donald Trump, you have one bout of chaos after another, she said. This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment. You cant fix Joe Bidens chaos with Republican chaos.

In her final Granite State appearances before polls closed, Ms. Haley had rejected the suggestion that Republican voters had already solidly united behind the former president, and pledged not to end her bid no matter the result.

I didnt get here because of luck, she said at a polling site in Hampton, N.H., while flanked by supporters, including Gov. Chris Sununu, her top surrogate in the state. I got here because I outworked and outsmarted all the rest of those fellas. So Im running against Donald Trump, and Im not going to talk about an obituary.

Mr. Trump, speaking to supporters at his victory party, mocked Ms. Haley for speaking like she won. But she didnt win she lost, he added.

On Wednesday morning, Ms. Haley is expected to speak during a Republican State Committee meeting in the Virgin Islands, which holds its contest on Feb. 8. She is then anticipated at a homecoming rally in Charleston, S.C., where her campaign has its headquarters.

A number of people close to Ms. Haley are encouraging her to keep going, many of whom are deeply opposed to Mr. Trumps becoming the nominee again.

Betsy Ankney, her campaign manager, released a memo early Tuesday morning shooting down suggestions that Mr. Trumps path to the nomination was inevitable. She pointed to the 11 of the 16 states that vote on Super Tuesday that have open or semi-open primaries that can include independent voters and are fertile ground for Nikki. Rushing through the departing crowds on Tuesday, Ms. Ankney said the campaign had also already assembled more staff members in place, though she declined to discuss further details.

Nevada will host a Republican caucus on Feb. 8, but Ms. Haley is not competing in that contest, instead participating in a Republican primary in the state two days earlier that awards no delegates.

Her campaign has bought over $1 million in television advertising from Tuesday through Feb. 6 in South Carolina, according to AdImpact, a media-tracking firm. It is part of what the campaign has announced will be a $4 million ad buy in the state.

And officials at her allied super PAC, Stand for America, said they, too, planned to forge ahead.

Mark Harris, the lead strategist for the PAC, said it was prepping television, mail and digital advertising in a get-out-the-vote effort that would look similar to the programs it had taken on in Iowa and New Hampshire, though as of Tuesday it had not yet made those investments.

Were running the outsider candidacy, so this was never going to happen all magically in one day, and so were going to keep pushing ahead, Mr. Harris said.

Since the summer, Ms. Haley has predicted that the Republican nominating contest would result in a showdown between her and Mr. Trump in her home state. Her outward confidence in that scenario has not faltered not after she failed to place second in Iowa, not after her top rival for No. 2, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, dropped out and endorsed Mr. Trump, not after a slate of South Carolina legislators this week joined Mr. Trump on the stump in the final days of the New Hampshire race.

Her message to his allies and the news media: She has been here before.

I won South Carolina twice as governor, she told reporters Friday at a retro diner in Amherst. I think I know what favorable territory is in South Carolina.

But it has been 10 years since she was last on the ballot, and her state and her party have changed. Mr. Trump has solidified a loyal base there since he won South Carolina in the 2016 Republican primary over Ms. Haleys endorsement of his opponent, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Although Ms. Haleys affluent and more moderate Republican base along the coast and in Charleston remains intact, her grip on the Midlands has loosened. In the more conservative Upstate around Greenville, she is likely to have an even steeper uphill climb.

The daunting path ahead did not damp the enthusiasm among her supporters who gathered at her election watch party Tuesday at a hotel in Concord. Many were not from New Hampshire. Almost 100 students hailed from New York.

Despite the results, many described feeling exhilarated, optimistic and hopeful, believing that as the last Trump challenger standing in the Republican race, she would now have a greater chance to spread her message.

When the election results flashed on the television screens scattered throughout the room, few had been paying attention.

Im happy to hear that she is still going, said Allie Cable, 26, a department supervisor in the health care industry in Concord. Anything could happen.

Richard and Wendy Clymer, a Republican couple also from Concord, had missed the moment entirely. They had rushed into the event late after spending the day rallying support for Ms. Haley and encouraging voters to get to the polls. He saw the result as encouraging, even though the state went to Mr. Trumps column.

Mr. Clymer, 63, an engineer who had held a Haley sign outside a polling place for seven hours, recalled the moment when the results of his polling location were read aloud: Trump 467, Haley 739.

There was an audible gasp in the gymnasium like, Wow, this guy can be beaten, Mr. Clymer said.

Maggie Haberman and Kellen Browning contributed reporting.

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Election 2024: Haley Heads Home to Keep Up Fight as Trump and Biden Look to Rematch - The New York Times

It was definitely not a good night for Donald Trump, Mike Madrid, a California GOP strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said.

By most metrics, the path to [stopping Trump] has become much clearer, Madrid said. The anti-Trump lane is discernible. Its palpable. Its big. Its something that we can work with in a real, meaningful way.

On the surface, the results from Iowa and New Hampshire look just plain bad for the anti-Trump movement. A former president facing 91 criminal charges and splitting his time between the courtroom and the campaign trail won over 50 percent of the vote in both states. In New Hampshire, where the GOP field quickly shrunk to two, independent voters, whose exit polls showed broke overwhelmingly for Haley, were trumped by Trumps GOP base.

The next two contests offer even less hope for impeding Trumps march toward the nomination. Haley is not competing for delegates in Nevada. And Trump leads her by double digits in polls of her home state of South Carolina.

Leaders of the effort to warn voters about a second Trump term say that focusing on the primary is a lost cause. They argue that Trumps nomination is inevitable and that the focus should shift now to trying to defeat him in the general election.

Its all doom and gloom in the primary, said Charlie Sykes, a conservative Wisconsin political commentator. But this has been predictable for a long time now.

Trumps detractors point to data from Iowa and New Hampshire that show some warning signs for Trump, particularly among independents and more moderate Republicans. In New Hampshire, 64 percent of undeclared voters sided with Haley, according to exit polls.

Exit polls showed four out of 10 people who cast a ballot for Nikki Haley in New Hampshire said they did so out of distaste for Donald Trump. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO

A pre-caucus NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of voters in Iowa found that 43 percent of Haley supporters said they would back President Joe Biden over Trump.

And in New Hampshire, 46 percent of GOP primary voters said they would be dissatisfied if Trump became the GOP nominee, and 35 percent said they would not vote for him in November.

Exit polls also showed four out of 10 people who cast a ballot for Haley in New Hampshire said they did so out of distaste for Trump. And 94 percent of Haleys voters said they would be dissatisfied if Trump won the nomination.

Fully half of Iowas Republican caucusgoers said they did not identify as part of Trumps Make America Great Again movement. Even more 63 percent said the same in New Hampshire.

That significant chunks of voters from two disparate (though still overwhelmingly white) electorates showed similar resistance to Trump is encouraging to both Sykes and Madrid.

Looking at these numbers and Trumps general approval [ratings] amongst Republicans and also election results from the last three elections, they are all pointing in a direction of getting worse for Trump not better, Madrid said.

Fergus Cullen, a Never Trump Republican and former New Hampshire Republican Party chair who voted for Haley on Tuesday, called those statistics the best result from yesterday.

Citing the 35 percent of voters who said they wouldnt vote for Trump in the general election, Cullen said, Imagine if 35 percent of GOP elected officials said the same thing. Those of us who oppose Trump may not be able to prevent his renomination, but we should be able to prevent him from winning a general.

Still, Trump has defied political gravity before, and many Trump critics after he left office once believed he was unlikely to win renomination. Cullen said Trump does have some ability to find new voters and expand the electorate.

Even though Biden and Trump have declared the general election effectively underway, Haley has not. The former South Carolina governor has vowed to continue through Super Tuesday, where her campaign argues a slate of open and semi-open primaries will give her a fighting chance.

And some Never Trumpers arent ready to look ahead to the general election yet. They want her to keep going.

Theres tons and tons of ammunition for her to make the case that [Trump] is unfit to be president, said Gordon Humphrey, a former U.S. senator from New Hampshire who left the party after Trump won the nomination in 2016 and supported Haley in Tuesdays primary.

Yet Sean Van Anglen, a New Hampshire political consultant who was an early supporter of Trump in 2016 but voted for Haley this time, is already moving on. Van Anglen, who said hed consider leaving the presidential line blank on his November ballot rather than vote for Trump or Biden, is looking to put together an effort to aid down-ballot Republicans who he believes could suffer with Trump again at the top of the ticket.

We need to let the toddler run his temper tantrum out, Van Anglen said. Then let the adults come back into the room and take back control of our party and our country.

Jessica Piper and Steve Shepard contributed to this report.

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Why Trump's critics see his New Hampshire win as a positive sign for 2024 - POLITICO - POLITICO

Iowas move combined with Democrats efforts to remake their early-state order to begin with South Carolina means the New Hampshire primary will most likely be held on Tuesday, Jan. 23, eight days after the Iowa caucuses.

But for the race for the Republican presidential nomination, that could leave a long gap between Iowa and New Hampshire, at the beginning, and the rest of the contests. The state GOP in South Carolina another of the four traditional, early carve-out states that the Republican National Committee says can host the first nominating contests last month set its primary date for Feb. 24.

Nevada, the fourth state, is almost certain to hold its caucuses sometime in February, but its plans have not been finalized yet.

Following those four states, Michigan is a possibility to slide into the fifth spot with a Feb. 27 primary. Otherwise, more than a dozen states are expected to vote the following week, March 5, on Super Tuesday, including delegate-rich California and Texas.

While theres less attention this cycle on the Democratic nomination, Iowas state Democratic Party had said it intends to hold its caucuses on the same day as the Republicans. Rita Hart, the state Democratic chairwoman, said her party had no input on the Republicans date and would continue to pursue a caucus that allowed more Democrats to participate than the traditional, only-in-person meetings.

No matter what, Iowa Democrats are committed to moving forward with the most inclusive caucus process in Iowas history, Hart said in a statement.

The Democratic National Committee, in picking South Carolina to go first and both Nevada and New Hampshire to follow second, has said Iowa would not be in compliance with its delegate rules if it holds caucuses on Jan. 15, nor would New Hampshires state-run primary if it was held on Jan. 23.

But since the South Carolina state Democratic Party intends to hold its party-run primary on Saturday, Feb. 3, New Hampshires state law says its primary must be held at least seven days prior to any other primary. That is what is likely to trigger the move up to Jan. 23. (Because Iowa holds caucuses and not a primary, New Hampshire can hold its primary after.)

In a statement, Iowa state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann said the date honors our half-century-old promises to the other carveout states.

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Iowa Republican caucus date set for Jan. 15, 2024 - POLITICO - POLITICO

Questions surrounding Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign strategy are multiplying as he continues to trail former President Trump in the polls nearly a month after his highly anticipated campaign launch.

In a sign of just how concerned some of the governor’s allies are, the spokesperson for the pro-DeSantis PAC Never Back Down recently referred to Trump as the “runaway front-runner” in the primary and said that DeSantis faced an “uphill battle.” 

Meanwhile, DeSantis’s campaign faced backlash this week after sharing a video attacking Trump over his past comments in support of the LGBTQ+ community, leading some Republicans to raise concerns. 

One Republican strategist described the DeSantis PAC spokesperson’s comments as “a very clear-eyed moment.” 

“They realize they’re in a hole,” the strategist told The Hill. “They realize they can potentially win this and they are the only other game in town, but again, they are in a big hole.” 

The spokesperson, Steve Cortes, made his headline-grabbing comments Sunday during a Twitter Spaces conversation.

“Right now, in national polling, we are way behind. I’ll be the first to admit that,” said Cortes, who previously worked as an adviser to Trump. “I believe in being really blunt and really honest. It’s an uphill battle.”

Cortes emphasized that he still believed DeSantis could win, while also pointing out how Trump’s prior experience could be aiding him.

“The former president has debated through two successive presidential cycles, so of course he possesses a lot of experience in that arena,” he said. “But I am convinced that Governor DeSantis will outperform expectations and inform large audiences about his amazing life, political record, and winning agenda for the presidency.”

“Taking on an incumbent or former president in the primary always represents a significant challenge,” Cortes continued. “I gladly embraced that reality in joining the team. All of us on Team DeSantis remain convinced that the governor has a strong path to the nomination, and the best chance of any Republican to defeat Biden in the general election.”

Still, there are reasons for allies of the governor to be worried. Around the same time Cortes’s comments surfaced, the DeSantis campaign’s “war room” sparked outrage and confusion with a video attacking Trump over LGBTQ+ rights, including for comments the former president made in support of the community after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida in 2016.

Among those who criticized DeSantis were LGBTQ+ Republicans including Rep. George Santos (N.Y.) and 2024 rivals including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

“They are looking for anything to garner attention so that they can use that to piggyback so they can spread their message,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based GOP strategist, in response to the video. “If Trump isn’t taking up the news oxygen, Hunter and Joe Biden are taking up the news oxygen.” 

Polling shows that after his launch in late May, DeSantis has struggled to gain traction in national and early state-level polling. 

The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Trump with 52.4 percent support, while DeSantis trails at 21.5 percent support. And an Echelon Insights poll released Wednesday showed fellow Republican contender Vivek Ramaswamy gaining traction on DeSantis. The poll shows Trump leading the pack at 66 percent, DeSantis at 52 percent and Ramaswamy at 40 percent. In May, Echelon showed Ramaswamy in fourth place behind former Vice President Mike Pence.

“Everyone goes, my God, this Vivek guy is not going to win, but he’s the only guy actually pushing the ideas envelope, and the ideas that he’s pushing is actually reinforcing a lot of what Trump is saying,” O’Connell said. 

But Trump is still DeSantis’s biggest obstacle. 

“I will tell you that Trump is in a much stronger position now than he was in 2016,” O’Connell said. “They recognize that lightning in a bottle is their best chance to win this, so what they need to do is they need to get out there and make sure that everyone knows who Ron is, his biography and what he stands for.” 

And DeSantis and his campaign have been focused on getting boots on the ground in the early caucus and primary states, most recently hitting up New Hampshire for the Fourth of July holiday. 

“The rain may have been heavy, but the enthusiasm was high,” DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo said in an email to reporters summing up the campaign stops. “Hundreds of Granite Staters turned out to show their support for the governor and his forward-looking vision for a better America.”

In a statement to The Hill on Wednesday, DeSantis’s campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin described the primary as “a marathon, not a sprint.” 

“Ron DeSantis has been underestimated in every race he has won, and this time will be no different,” Griffin said. “Donald Trump has to explain to Republican voters why he didn’t do the things he is now promising in his first term as president. Governor Ron DeSantis over-delivered on his promises as governor and has the national vision we need to restore our country, clean out DC, and lead our Great American Comeback.” 

So far, it appears that DeSantis’s bumpy start hasn’t dissuaded donors from lining up behind him. On Thursday, the campaign announced it had raised $20 million in its first six weeks, though that trailed the more than $35 million Trump’s campaign raised for the second quarter.

Of course, there’s also the possibility of further shakeups to the race between now and the Iowa caucuses, including the first Republican presidential primary debate, which is set to take place in August. 

“I kind of view the first debate as the beginning of the campaign, quite honestly,” said Justin Sayfie, a Florida-based Republican strategist. “That’s when voters will get to start to view the candidates side by side.” 

But it’s unclear whether Trump will even attend the debate, and whether some of the lower-polling candidates will make the stage. 

“The dynamic changes if Trump’s on stage versus not on stage,” Sayfie said. “It changes if Chris Christie is on stage versus not on stage. We don’t even know those things yet.” 

And if the news cycle — including Trump’s recent indictments — is indicative of what’s to come, there could be more twists and turns going into next year. 

“The important thing, and I think people recognize this in a primary, is to not peak too soon, and there’s historical references,” Sayfie said. “I remember when John McCain had an event in Miami in 2007, and people were begging me to show up at his fundraiser and not even bring a check.” 

“His campaign was literally on life support, and he ended up becoming the Republican nominee,” he added. 

But others have suggested that DeSantis peaked following the midterm elections, when Florida Republicans saw sweeping victories there while Trump-endorsed candidates largely performed poorly in other parts of the country. 

“The mistake they made — and again, it’s a mistake most people running for a new office make — they assume people know more about Ron than they actually do,” O’Connell said. 

Originally posted here:

Republicans sound alarm over DeSantiss sagging campaign - The Hill

William Barr, probably the most notable defector, went from leading an egregiously politicized Justice Department acting essentially as Mr. Trumps personal attorney to denouncing his former bosss criminal and unethical behavior in a string of interviews. Chris Christie, now in a quest for the White House himself, is reprimanding as unfit for office the man he once obsequiously praised as he sought a cabinet appointment.

Clearly, more Republicans who, reluctantly or not, embraced or tolerated Mr. Trumps misdeeds need to finally break their silence with the same fervor they exhibited to support him.

Any effort by members of his own party, however belated, that discredits the former president and short-circuits his hopes of re-election would be an indispensable contribution to the best interests of the majority of Americans.

Roger Hirschberg South Burlington, Vt.

To the Editor:

Finally, someone with stature addresses the elephant in the room. Liz Cheney sacrificed her congressional seat for principle. Why dont the seasoned Republicans who likely will never seek office or an appointed political post again, and have nothing to lose, show some courage?

I think of: Olympia Snowe, Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, George Pataki, John Danforth, Pete Wilson, Elizabeth Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Phil Scott, Christine Todd Whitman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Hagel, Nancy Kassebaum, John Ashcroft, Dan Coats, William Cohen, Alfonse DAmato, Jeff Flake, Bill Frist, Alan Simpson, Ted Olson, William Weld and a host of others.

See the rest here:

Opinion | Can the Republican Party Reverse Course? - The New York Times

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters

Republicans continue to be divided over whether to support Ukraine, and that, in and of itself, is a problem. According to a survey last month by the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of Republicans now say we are giving too much aid to Ukraine.

The good news is that, as is the case with most issue polling, the numbers seem contingent on 1) how the questions are asked and 2) whether respondents are prompted with information before they are queried.

For example, another survey (conducted around the same time on behalf of the Ronald Reagan Institute) found that the numbers moved significantly when respondents were informed that our spending in Ukraine constitutes just 3 percent of the U.S. militarys budget, that Ukraine remains in control of roughly 83 percent of its territory, and that the war has severely degraded Russias military power and its ability to threaten NATO allies.

Americans Cant Even Agree on What Our Country Is

These conflicting results are partially explained by a Republican Party in the midst of an identity crisis.

As conservative columnist Matthew Continetti concluded, in the absence of energetic and effective leadership, negative partisanship determines voter attitudes. Republicans soured on aid to Ukraine not because they side with Russia, but because they consider the war to be another wasteful Biden project. When Republicans learn the facts behind U.S. involvement, however, their instinctual hawkishness kicks in. What they have lacked is a prominent GOP spokesman for freedom.

All this is to say: Words matter. And leaders matter. As John F. Kennedy said of Winston Churchill, He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. In a different way, Ronald Reagan marshaled his moral clarity and rhetoric to inspire Americans and dissidents in the Soviet Union to win the Cold War.

Today, however, traditional conservatives like Mike Pence, who try to carry the Reagan banner, are increasingly outgunned by a small but loud minority of Republican politicians who oppose sending aid.

Story continues

Meanwhile, Republican politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cant make up their minds about where they stand on the issue.

Fortunately, there are emerging efforts to fill this leadership void, including a new group called Ukraine Strong that is headed by former senior GOP campaign officials, spokesmen, and operatives. As their website warns, ...Republican sentiment inertia is being pulled towards retreat and isolationism, making future conflict more likely.

Voices like these are necessary because rank-and-file Republicans are clearly torn over this issue. While Republicans may be somewhat predisposed to support U.S. aid to Ukraine out of sheer muscle memory, the zeitgeistfor now, at leastclearly favors the opposite camp.

Im concerned that the anti-Ukraine trend on the right will enforce Russias belief that if they bide their time, America will eventually cut and run. This commentary is both depressing and surprising.

If you were to transport a Republican from the year 2000 to present day, he or she would be stunned by todays dovish GOP. Ive been paying close attention to politics for decades, and Im still surprised by the state of the GOP.

Russias Mutiny Shows Ukraine Can Win the War

I shouldnt be. While Republicans may vacillate on issues ranging from character to free trade, its not surprising that opposition to Russias invasion is likewise controversial within the GOP. As a Reagan fan in the 1980s, raised on a steady diet of peace through strength conservatism and fueled by Red Dawn-esque pop culture flicks, I am saddened by this drastic turn of events.

The Republican brand was once contingent on being perceived as the party that was willing to stand up to the bad guys. The idea that accomplishing this vital goal might cost too much would have seemed like lefty talk.

After liberals decided that stopping the spread of communism was no longer worth paying any price or bearing any burden, they said things like, We have homeless in America, why are we fighting in X?

Putin Killed Trumps America First Movement

Today, an increasing number of Republicans are making a similar argument, except their implicit message is, We have poor white people in Appalachia. Why are we wasting their resources on Ukraine?

Im old enough to remember when The Reagan Doctrine called for providing overt and covert aid to resistance movements fending off an Evil Empire. Granted, todays imperialistic Russia is not Marxist (although its leader is a former KGB officer), but this foreign policy philosophy was deeply rooted in experience.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost, Reagan said during his famous D-Day speech. Weve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

How Did We Get Putin So Wrong?

Have we learned those lessons?

World War II occurred eight decades ago. Unfortunately, many Americans have forgotten the lessons we collectively learned as a country. Some Republicans seem more interested in repeating the mistakes of the 1930s than they are in learning the lessons from the 1940s.

And keep in mind, its not just Russia who is watching and testing our resolve. Other bad actors, like China, are surely paying attention to our every move.

No, we shouldnt go abroad looking for monsters to destroy. But we also shouldnt be naive enough to think that our non-involvement will deter bullies from picking on weaker countries. History suggests appeasement does the exact opposite.

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Reagans Republican Party Wouldnt Think Twice About Aid to Ukraine - Yahoo News