Trump team struggles to muster support ahead of SC event op-ed skeletons in your closet no problem you can be a GOP candidate King Charles reportedly tried to mediate between his sons at Prince Philip's funeral Prince William is curious about Prince Harry's Memoir leaks according to Palace.
Insiders Israel's Netanyahu fires cabinet Ally heating Court ruling this breaking news I'm Aaron Burnett in Washington Trump team struggles to muster support ahead of SC event advisors to Donald Trump have blanketed South Carolina Republican officials with pleading phone calls in recent weeks in.
An effort to drum up endorsements and attendees for the former President's first campaigned swing of the 2024 cycle next week but the appeals have run headline into a complicated new reality many of the state's lawmakers and political operatives and even some of his previous supporters are not ready to pick a.
Presidential candidate they find themselves divided between their support for Trump their desire for a competitive nomination fight in the state and their allegiance to two South Carolina natives former Governor Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott who have taken steps to challenge Trump for the nomination.
Both are said by people close to them to be seriously considering a bid and Haley is expected to announce in the coming weeks South Carolina operative said the result foretells a trump launch event in the early primary state with an expected endorsement by Senator Lindsay o Graham Republican South Carolina and a reaffirmation of support from Governor.
Henry McMaster r that positions the former president as a serious Contender but stops short of demonstrating the dominance that he once enjoyed Nikki Haley is probably our first South Carolinian since we voted for George Washington that has really had a chance of being president of the United States said former South Carolina GOP chair.
Caton Dawson a supporter of the former Governor explaining the challenge and I think the Trump folks are going to run into that history Conservative Christian leaders start to break with Trump with an eye on DeSantis Dave Wilson president of Palmetto family Council an influential Evangelical group said there is more than a little bit of.
Softening of trump support in South Carolina saying many had been turned off by some of his recent comments including questioning the Loyalty of Evangelical voters Wilson said many evangelicals in the state wanted to wait and see who got into the race a lot of people recognize the importance.
Of the Trump presidency who are stepping back and are saying is there another standard Bearer for the party and the issues we believe in someone who can carry us not just four more years but eight more years and create momentum he said State party chairman Drew mckissick will not be attending the January 28th Trump.
Event because of the RNC meeting next week in California and representative Ralph Norman Republican South Carolina a close Ally of both Trump and Haley has a prior commitment on January 28 that he may not be able to break to attend the rally according to their advisors Pope Walker executive director of the state party recently turned down a job.
Offer from the Trump campaign because she has decided to stay in her role for the cycle several other state lawmakers have also told Trump's team that they will not be able to make it according to people familiar with the conversations who like others for this story requested anonymity to describe private.
Conversations Graham has been trying to Rally support for Trump treat people familiar with the call said telling people they should get on board because he is likely to be the nominee the Trump campaign is trying to consolidate support but I don't think it is going to be as.
Quick as they think said one state lawmaker who has so far resisted the appeals of the Trump team and heard mutterings of support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis r right now my constituency is as excited about Ron DeSantis as Donald Trump if not more Stephen Chung a spokesman for Trump's.
Campaign said the former president would make a strong show of support at the event president Trump is going to South Carolina to unveil his leadership team which will show the significant support he has throughout the state from Grassroots leaders to elected officials he said.
The event to be staged at the state house has faced some logistical hurdles as well people familiar with the planning say Trump's likely Rivals for the nomination are also doing their part to prevent early Trump dominance former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been running Facebook ads in the.
State this year promising to help principled conservatives in South Carolina restore the American dream former by op-ed skeletons in your closet no problem you can be a GOP candidate on Monday Albuquerque police arrested Solomon Pena a failed 2022 Republican candidate for the New Mexico State Legislature for allegedly orchestrating.
Shootings at the homes of four Democratic elected officials okay maybe there's no way the party could have known he'd do that when they nominated him but the fact that Pena had previously been convicted of 19 felonies and served nearly seven years in prison might have suggested some problems down the road.
This comes amid an ongoing Scandal over new Republican House member George Santos of New York who has been found to have fabricated pretty much every aspect of his life that he presented to voters last year the head of the Nassau County Republican party in Santos district has called on him to resign.
What do these stories have in common they suggest a Republican party that simply doesn't vet candidates for office anymore even cursory background checks or interviews would have revealed some problems with these candidates but today's GOP doesn't seem to care what happened.
Screening candidates is actually a major role that parties traditionally play often parties do most of that work in competitive races trying to focus on the candidates they think can win and pressuring out candidates they think will be less appealing in 2018 for example the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee played.
A strong role in shaping the party's nomination for the house seat in Colorado 6th District recruiting and advocating for Jason Crowe to be nominated and he went on to win the seat against a republican incumbent this kind of calculation by formal Party leaders is a pretty common thing but in the Crow case there is even audio.
Of a conversation that stenny H Hoyer Democrat Maryland then the House minority whip representing the DCCC head with Crow's primary Challenger Levi Tillman urging him to get out of the race hoyer's argument was that the party simply believed that Crow would have an easier time defeating the Republican.
Incumbent representative Mike Kaufman Tillman refused to bow out but lost to Crow in the primary we'll never know how Tillman would have done in the general election but the party didn't want to take any chances and even when the general election doesn't look competitive parties have often tried to discourage candidates who.
Will hurt their brand and make them look bad it wasn't that long ago that house Republican leaders pressured Representative Steve king of Iowa to leave Congress his racist outbursts were seen as damaging to the party's reputation while party influence may not always be.
So overt the two parties have always been concerned about electability in general elections but judging from the examples of Pena and Santos the GOP is more than willing to leave that aside In fairness it's not quite so simple as that in numerous Senate races last year.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell Republican Kentucky spent his energies recruiting and endorsing candidates he thought were electable but those candidates were often outgunned in the Republican primaries by those backed by former president Trump made a point of backing candidates like Herschel Walker Blake Masters and mehmed.
Oz people who were famous or wealthy or just said nice things publicly about Trump those candidates all underperformed in the midterm election research by political scientists Rachel Porter and Sarah troll makes clear that there have been some important recent changes in American politics.
More inexperienced people are running for office and winning more often in primaries than they used to particularly among Republicans since 2016. two important factors have driven this change one is specifically the candidacy of trump prior to 2016 Republicans had been like.
Democrats concerned about candidate electability GOP leaders rallied around presidential candidates John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 over other popular more conservative leaders precisely because they believed that those two candidates had a better shot at winning the general election.
Republicans broadly predicted a trump candidacy would be poisoned to the whole party ticket but then it wasn't for many of them the lesson was if Trump could take the White House any electability analysis was out the window if Trump could win after everything he said and did in 2016 maybe others could too.
And indeed the party has been far more tolerant of candidates such as Lauren bobert Marjorie Taylor green Matt Gates and others who until recently would have been considered The unpalatable Fringe a second factor is the influence of conservative media such as Fox News which are a dominant source of political information for Republican primary.
Voters these Outlets generally don't portray extremist Republican candidates as such instead they portray them as unfair victims of the mainstream media and turn their accusations and attacks on Progressive Democrats it's hard to punish a problematic candidate inside an echo chamber.
