Won’t-run-if-Trump-runs question leads to waiting game for likely 2024
As each rumored 2024 candidate navigates the uncertainty of another Trump bid — deciding if they should publicly acknowledge their presidential ambitions or keep their head down until he makes a decision — their potential opponents are paying close attention to the degree of loyalty they show the former President.
Some likely 2024 contenders are creating campaigns-in-waiting — hiring trusted advisers, meeting with donors and visiting all-important primary states despite knowing it could all be for nothing if the former President enters the race. On Wednesday, for instance, former Vice President Mike Pence is set to travel to New Hampshire to mingle with GOP donors at a fundraiser for state Republicans and critique the Biden administration in a speech hosted by conservative activism group Heritage Action. Notably, Pence has not said he would refrain from challenging his former boss in the next presidential primary.
Other rumored Republican hopefuls who have made such declarations have drawn criticism from within the party.
“If you’re saying you’re deferring to someone, that’s a real sign of both weakness and indecision,” he said in May.
Meanwhile, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and a handful of Republican senators have intimated as much by saying they support the prospect of another Trump campaign or believe the GOP presidential nomination is his if he does run.
“If Donald Trump is going to run for president in 2024, he’ll be the Republican nominee. Of course, I would support him in that,” Sen. Marco Rubio told WPTV last week. On Friday, fellow Florida Sen. Rick Scott said in a Fox Business interview that Trump “ought to do it again.”
Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina, two other senators who have been talked about as possible 2024 GOP contenders, have also expressed support of a future Trump bid.
And even as she traveled to Iowa in July — signaling her own interest in building relationships that could benefit her in 2024 — Noem told conservative activists at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines that she was “counting on [Trump] running.”
One aide to a prospective Republican candidate who has not publicly said he would defer to the former President told CNN that “unless there’s a dramatic shift in the base, the nomination is Donald Trump’s and it would be a suicide mission to run against him.” And yet, the aide continued, “We aren’t ever going to admit that. It turns off voters we might need down the road.”
Candidates who have shown deference to Trump — yielding to him before the GOP primary has even begun — are now being ribbed by his allies.
“You either are your own person or not and when you’re playing reflexive politics, it’s kind of hard to then go to the base and say you’re a fighter,” said…
Read More: Won’t-run-if-Trump-runs question leads to waiting game for likely 2024