Senate Republicans, including members of the leadership and even Trump supporters, said former President Trump should not participate in the 2024 Senate primary to avoid a repeat of last year’s disappointing midterm elections. said.
They expect Trump to take more political responsibility in next year’s Senate election as his legal troubles mount.
The Manhattan District Attorney on Tuesday charged him with 34 felony counts related to payments to two women.
The Republican lawmaker and strategist in his discussion of pet issues such as election fraud and defunding the Justice Department, rather than issues more voters care about, such as the economy, inflation and health care. , fears Trump will harass the Republican nominee.
And I fear Trump’s support will again be driven more by candidates’ loyalties to him and how he perceives his agenda than by his chances of winning in November. There is
Republican Senator John Thune, SD, who stood in for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky while he was recovering from a concussion, said it would be better if Trump didn’t get in the way. .
“Given the lack of success in 2022, it certainly seems to help,” he said.
Even Trump’s most powerful allies want next year’s Senate election to take place without Trump’s thumb.
“If I were him, I would focus on his own election, but I doubt he would take that advice,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C.
Trump announced his candidacy for president in November.
He had a mixed record last year endorsing candidates for governor, Senate, and House.
He had a losing record as his super PAC spent money on Gubernatorial and Senate races for Republican candidates in six states: Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
He compiled a record of 1-6 in those states, beaten only by Senator JD Vance (Republican, Ohio), whom Trump endorsed in the primary.
And Trump’s backed candidates lost in five of the most competitive House elections.
Many Senate Republicans backed a candidate Washington’s Republicans didn’t see as the candidate most likely to win the general election, prompting Mr. I think I hurt my chances.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) cast two votes to convict Trump of impeachment, but the consensus view at the Senate Republican meeting is that Trump will be king in next year’s primary. He said that trying to play the maker would do more harm than good.
“I hope he stays because the last time he got involved we lost an important Senate election that we could have won,” he said. I think that there [that way] Almost all party members, if not all, say that, but I think very few people say it because they don’t want to incur the wrath of Donald Trump. ”
Republican strategist and former Senate leadership aide Ron Bonjean said Trump didn’t have a good record picking winners in last year’s toughest campaign.
“Trump has a very poor track record of endorsing top-tier candidates who could be elected to the Senate. , no wonder they want Trump to stay as far away from the primary as possible.”
Some Senate Republicans believe Mr. Trump has downed candidates by making it more difficult for them to appeal to moderates and underdogs in the general election.
Former Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who won two Pennsylvania elections, blamed Trump for losing his seat.
“President Trump had to insert himself, and it changed the nature of the election and created too many roadblocks,” Toomey told CNN in November, referring to the celebrities Trump endorsed in the primary. Doctor Mehmet Oz explained why he thought he lost. Now Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
Toomey was one of seven Republican senators to convict Trump of impeachment charges for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that he lost the 2020 presidential election due to rampant fraud have become a litmus test in some Senate Republican primaries, plaguing candidates who embraced those claims in the general election. I came back to
In New Hampshire, Republicans thought they had a good chance of defeating vulnerable Sen. He won the primary after accepting allegations of election fraud. It turned out to be a liability in the general election, and Boldak tried to move away from that stance after winning the primary, telling Fox News in September.
Mark Weaver, an Ohio-based Republican strategist who wants the Republican Party to defeat Democratic Sen. said to be responsible.
“Trump’s support always hurts in general elections, because he’s always been the red cape for the Democratic bullfighters, and I don’t think independents are increasing their support for Donald Trump.” have voters.
But some Republican strategists outside the Beltway see Trump as an asset for Republican candidates in battleground states such as Ohio.
Mehek Cooke, a Republican strategist and attorney based in Columbus, Ohio, said Trump’s support in the general election was “very positive.”
“I think there’s a lot of support for President Trump in Ohio,” she said. “If Senate Republicans in Washington really want to beat Sherrod Brown, they will band together and work with Trump and other candidates instead of continuing the divisions we see in our country.”
Trump won Ohio with 51% and 53% of the vote in 2016 and 2020, respectively.
Now Trump is dividing Republicans over another controversy: his role in instigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and following a federal investigation into his handling of classified documents in Mar-a. , his call to stop funding the Justice Department and the FBI. – Lago.
A Senate Republican aide told The Hill that the idea wouldn’t get much support at the Senate’s GOP meeting, but House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Congress says it should use the power of its wallet to push back the federal investigation. Trump.
Jordan filed a subpoena on Thursday with Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, to “prevent politically motivated prosecutions of current and former presidents by elected state and local prosecutors.” He cited parliamentary interest in
Bonjean, a Republican strategist and former aide to the leadership, said Trump is shifting the Senate debate away from topics Republican leaders want to emphasize: inflation, gas prices, crime, borders and federal spending. said.
“When Trump gets into these primaries, our candidates have to talk about Stormy Daniels on January 6th, the stolen election, and those aren’t the issues Main Street voters really want to hear. is not.
“They want to know how you are going to solve the problems and whether you can actually empathize as a politician, as an elected official. It has little to do with electoral voters.
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