NEW YORK –
Donald Trump’s pick for governor in the swing state of Wisconsin handily defeated a favorite of the Republican establishment.
In Connecticut, the state that launched the Bush family and their brand of compassionate conservatism, a fierce Senate contender who promoted Trump’s lies rankled the state’s GOP-backed candidate. Meanwhile, in Washington, Republicans ranging from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene defended Trump against an unprecedented FBI manhunt.
And that was just this week.
The swift events crystallized the former president’s unique status at the top of a party he has spent the last seven years dismantling and rebuilding in his image. Facing mounting legal vulnerabilities and considering another presidential run, he needs the party’s support to maintain his political career. But like it or not, many in the party also need Trump, whose endorsement has proven crucial for those seeking to advance to the November ballot.
“For quite some time, it seemed like the Trump movement was losing more ground than it was gaining,” said Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, who is urging his party to outdo Trump. But now, he said, Trump is benefiting from “an incredibly fast tailwind.”
The Republican response to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida property this week was an especially stark example of how the party is keeping Trump close. Some of the Republicans considering challenging Trump in the 2024 presidential primary, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, were among those who defended him. Even long-established Trump critics like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan questioned the search and pressed for details about his circumstances.
But even before the FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago, Trump was gaining momentum in his post-presidential effort to shape the Republican Party. In all, nearly 180 Trump-backed candidates from across the ballot have won their primaries since May, while fewer than 20 have lost.
Only two of the 10 House Republicans who supported impeaching Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection are expected to return to Congress next year. Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, a Republican from Washington, who conceded defeat after Tuesday’s primary, was the last to fall. Trump’s main antagonist, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, risks joining her next week.
Trump’s victories include an outright victory in the state primary in Arizona last week, including an election denier in the race for the state’s top elections official. Trump allies also prevailed Tuesday in Wisconsin and Connecticut, a state long known for its moderate Republican leanings.
In Wisconsin’s Republican gubernatorial primary, wealthy Trump-backed businessman Tim Michels defeated former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, an establishment favorite. And in Connecticut, Leora Levy, who promoted Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, scored an upset victory over a more moderate rival after gaining Trump’s official endorsement.
On Monday, just hours after the FBI search, Trump hosted a television rally on his behalf. Levy thanked Trump in his acceptance speech, while criticizing the FBI’s search.
“All of us can tell you how upset, offended and disgusted we were by what happened to him,” he said. “That is un-American. That is what they do in Cuba, in China, in the dictatorships. And that will stop.”
Despite his recent dominance, Trump — and Republicans close to him — face political and legal threats that could undermine their momentum as the GOP battles for control of Congress and state chambers across the country this fall.
While the Trump picks have made notable victories in the primaries this summer, they may struggle in the fall. That’s especially true in several gubernatorial races in Democratic-leaning states like Connecticut and Maryland, where Republican candidates must go center stage to win a general election.
Meanwhile, several Republicans with White House ambitions are pushing ahead with a busy travel schedule that will take them to politically important states where they can endorse candidates on this year’s ballot and build relationships heading into 2024.
DeSantis plans to boost high-profile GOP contenders in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Former Vice President Mike Pence, another possible 2024 presidential contender, will appear next week in New Hampshire.
On the legal front, the FBI search was part of an investigation into whether the former president took classified White House records to his Florida residence. While Republicans have rallied behind Trump, very little information about the case has been made public. Trump’s lawyers have so far refused to release details of the search warrant.
Prosecutors in Washington and Georgia are also investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election that he falsely claimed were stolen. The congressional commission on January 6 exposed damning details about Trump’s behavior of Republican witnesses in recent hearings, raising new concerns, at least privately, among the Republican establishment and the donor class.
And on Wednesday, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination when he testified under oath Wednesday in the New York attorney general’s lengthy civil investigation into his business dealings.
Trump’s legal entanglements represent, at best, a distraction for Republican candidates who prefer to focus on President Joe Biden’s leadership, soaring inflation and immigration issues to help court moderate and independent voters in the general elections.
“Today every Republican in every state in this country should be talking about how bad Joe Biden is, how bad inflation is, how difficult it is to run a business and run a home,” said Duncan, the lieutenant governor of Georgia. . “But instead, we’re talking about some investigation, we’re talking about Donald Trump claiming the Fifth, we’re talking about Donald Trump supporting some conspiracy theorist.”
Trump critics in both parties are ready and willing to highlight Trump’s shortcomings — and his relationship to midterm candidates — as more voters begin to pay attention to politics this fall.
“This is, and always has been, Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in an interview, condemning the “MAGA Republicans” and their “extreme agenda” on abortion and Other themes.
At the same time, the Republican Accountability Project and Protect Democracy this week launched a $3 million television and digital advertising campaign in seven swing states focused on Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection. The ads, which will run in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, feature testimonials from Republican voters condemning Trump’s lies about nonexistent voter fraud that fueled the attack on Capitol Hill.
One ad features congressional testimony from Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has publicly declared that Trump should never again hold public office.
Still, Cheney faces his own primary election against a Trump-backed challenger next week in Wyoming. One of Trump’s main political targets this year, he is expected to lose. Anticipating defeat, Cheney’s allies suggest that she may be better positioned to run for president in 2024, either as a Republican or an independent.
Trump’s allies have supreme confidence in his ability to win the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. In fact, advisers who initially pushed him to launch his campaign after the November midterms are now encouraging him to announce earlier to help. freeze potential Republican challengers. .
“It’s going to be very difficult for someone to take the nomination from him in 2024,” said Stephen Moore, a former Trump economic adviser who has spoken with Trump about his intentions for 2024. “He’s running. That’s a certainty.”
Rep. Tom Rice, R.C., predicted that Trump would “lose landslide” if he sought the presidency again, adding that the former president’s overall control over the party is “eroding around the edges.”
“In a normal election, you have to win not just the base. You have to win the middle, too, and maybe the crossover on the other side,” said Rice, who lost her recent primary after voting for Trump’s second impeachment.
Rice warned that Trump’s far-right candidates could cause unnecessary losses to the party in November. “Donald Trump is pushing things too far to the right,” he said in an interview.
Meanwhile, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was eyeing a 2024 run, warned against making bold political predictions two years before the GOP selects its next presidential candidate.
“We’re sitting here in August 2022,” Christie said in an interview. “I think there’s still a lot of water left on the dam before anyone can determine someone’s individual position in the primary on 24, except to say that if Donald Trump does run, it will certainly be a factor.”
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Associated Press writers Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.