• About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Candidate Profile
Lootpress
  • News
    • All
    • Breaking
    • Crime
    • Featured
    • Health
    • Lifestyle
    • Local
    • National
    • North Carolina News
    • Politics
    • State
    • Top Stories
    • Virginia News
    • Weather News

    Academy for the Arts receives $10,000 grant

    Boone County traffic stop leads to arrests

    Alderson 4th of July Celebration event schedule

    Man arrested after making bomb threats at The Greenbrier Resort

    Life is an Ocean, Not a Pool

    Boil water advisory issued for Vine, Porter Street areas

    Rupert PD reiterates town fireworks ordinance as Fourth of July approaches

    Arkansas Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug Crime

    118 Free Smoke Alarms Installed in 60 Huntington Homes

    • Breaking
    • Crime
    • Local
    • National

      Gov. Justice announces Woody Williams as first inductee into the new West Virginia Military Hall of Fame

      Jackson sworn in, becomes 1st Black woman on Supreme Court

      Senatore Shelley Moore Capito, (R-WV)

      Ranking Member Capito Statement on Supreme Court Decision on West Virginia v. EPA

      W.Va. AG says EPA Supreme Court Ruling is a Great Win for West Virginia, Nation

      Supreme Court limits EPA in curbing power plant emissions

      Biden says he supports changing Senate filibuster rules to protect abortion rights

      Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

      Buttigieg launches $1B pilot to build racial equity in roads

      Instagram and Facebook remove posts offering abortion pills

      Jackson to be sworn in as Breyer retires from Supreme Court

    • Politics

      Jackson sworn in, becomes 1st Black woman on Supreme Court

      Senatore Shelley Moore Capito, (R-WV)

      Ranking Member Capito Statement on Supreme Court Decision on West Virginia v. EPA

      Mullens Municipal election results certified following recount

      Biden pitches Democrats on Biden for president in 2024

      Biden says he supports changing Senate filibuster rules to protect abortion rights

      Jackson to be sworn in as Breyer retires from Supreme Court

      Most say nation on wrong track, including Dems: AP-NORC poll

      Justices limit 2020 ruling on tribal lands in Oklahoma

      McConnell vows to be ‘picky’ with Biden nominees if GOP wins Senate

    • State

      118 Free Smoke Alarms Installed in 60 Huntington Homes

      Gov. Justice announces Woody Williams as first inductee into the new West Virginia Military Hall of Fame

      Ahead of July 4th Celebrations, GHSP Reminds Drivers: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

      DMV Driver Test Site in Fairmont Moving to New Middletown Commons Location

      Capito, Manchin Announce Funding for Workers Harmed by Foreign Trade

      West Virginia American Water Files 2023 Infrastructure Replacement Plan and Distribution System Improvement Charge

      Gov. Justice orders all U.S. and State flags to be flown at half-staff immediately and through July 4 in honor of Woody Williams

      Gov. Justice debuts Capitol Circle as newest route of West Virginia’s Mountain Rides program

      UPDATE: Missing man found dead

    • Virginia News
    • Weather News
  • County News
    • Boone County
    • Greenbrier County
    • Fayette County
    • Kanawha County
    • Logan County
    • McDowell County
    • Mercer County
    • Mingo County
    • Monroe County
    • Nicholas County
    • Putnam County
    • Raleigh County
    • Summers County
    • Tazewell County
    • Wyoming County
  • Sports
    • 2021 Prep Football Tab
    • 2021 Prep Football Playoffs
    • Local Sports
    • College Sports
    • Boys Basketball
    • Girls Basketball
    • Miners Baseball
    • Prep Baseball
    • Prep Softball
    • Prep Football
    • Prep Soccer
    • Prep Track and Field
    • Prep Volleyball
    • Golf
    • WVU Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Visit Southern WV Tourism
    • Scenic Route Podcasts
  • Editorials
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Breaking
    • Crime
    • Featured
    • Health
    • Lifestyle
    • Local
    • National
    • North Carolina News
    • Politics
    • State
    • Top Stories
    • Virginia News
    • Weather News

    Academy for the Arts receives $10,000 grant

    Boone County traffic stop leads to arrests

    Alderson 4th of July Celebration event schedule

    Man arrested after making bomb threats at The Greenbrier Resort

    Life is an Ocean, Not a Pool

    Boil water advisory issued for Vine, Porter Street areas

    Rupert PD reiterates town fireworks ordinance as Fourth of July approaches

    Arkansas Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug Crime

    118 Free Smoke Alarms Installed in 60 Huntington Homes

    • Breaking
    • Crime
    • Local
    • National

      Gov. Justice announces Woody Williams as first inductee into the new West Virginia Military Hall of Fame

      Jackson sworn in, becomes 1st Black woman on Supreme Court

      Senatore Shelley Moore Capito, (R-WV)

      Ranking Member Capito Statement on Supreme Court Decision on West Virginia v. EPA

      W.Va. AG says EPA Supreme Court Ruling is a Great Win for West Virginia, Nation

      Supreme Court limits EPA in curbing power plant emissions

      Biden says he supports changing Senate filibuster rules to protect abortion rights

      Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg

      Buttigieg launches $1B pilot to build racial equity in roads

      Instagram and Facebook remove posts offering abortion pills

      Jackson to be sworn in as Breyer retires from Supreme Court

    • Politics

      Jackson sworn in, becomes 1st Black woman on Supreme Court

      Senatore Shelley Moore Capito, (R-WV)

      Ranking Member Capito Statement on Supreme Court Decision on West Virginia v. EPA

      Mullens Municipal election results certified following recount

      Biden pitches Democrats on Biden for president in 2024

      Biden says he supports changing Senate filibuster rules to protect abortion rights

      Jackson to be sworn in as Breyer retires from Supreme Court

      Most say nation on wrong track, including Dems: AP-NORC poll

      Justices limit 2020 ruling on tribal lands in Oklahoma

      McConnell vows to be ‘picky’ with Biden nominees if GOP wins Senate

    • State

      118 Free Smoke Alarms Installed in 60 Huntington Homes

      Gov. Justice announces Woody Williams as first inductee into the new West Virginia Military Hall of Fame

      Ahead of July 4th Celebrations, GHSP Reminds Drivers: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

      DMV Driver Test Site in Fairmont Moving to New Middletown Commons Location

      Capito, Manchin Announce Funding for Workers Harmed by Foreign Trade

      West Virginia American Water Files 2023 Infrastructure Replacement Plan and Distribution System Improvement Charge

      Gov. Justice orders all U.S. and State flags to be flown at half-staff immediately and through July 4 in honor of Woody Williams

      Gov. Justice debuts Capitol Circle as newest route of West Virginia’s Mountain Rides program

      UPDATE: Missing man found dead

    • Virginia News
    • Weather News
  • County News
    • Boone County
    • Greenbrier County
    • Fayette County
    • Kanawha County
    • Logan County
    • McDowell County
    • Mercer County
    • Mingo County
    • Monroe County
    • Nicholas County
    • Putnam County
    • Raleigh County
    • Summers County
    • Tazewell County
    • Wyoming County
  • Sports
    • 2021 Prep Football Tab
    • 2021 Prep Football Playoffs
    • Local Sports
    • College Sports
    • Boys Basketball
    • Girls Basketball
    • Miners Baseball
    • Prep Baseball
    • Prep Softball
    • Prep Football
    • Prep Soccer
    • Prep Track and Field
    • Prep Volleyball
    • Golf
    • WVU Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Visit Southern WV Tourism
    • Scenic Route Podcasts
  • Editorials
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Lootpress
No Result
View All Result

GOP White House hopefuls wait to see what Trump does next

Tyler Barker by Tyler Barker
Tuesday, February 23, 2021 1:29 pm
0

And that’s just the way the president likes it, ensuring he stays in the spotlight and generating the cash and media coverage he craves. But strategists say Trump is essentially leaving the party in a holding pattern, with could-be-candidates unable to prepare as they try to avoid crossing a notoriously unforgiving president who has an enormous Twitter bullhorn and little tolerance for perceived disloyalty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When a party loses the White House, a new crop of presidential hopefuls typically begin moving quickly to lay the groundwork for a run in the next campaign.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Not this year.

President Donald Trump’s increasingly overt flirtations with running again in 2024 are freezing the potentially vast field of Republican candidates. GOP White House hopefuls are essentially left to watch what Trump does next instead of courting fundraisers, building networks and visiting early-voting states — the usual campaign planning steps — for fear of angering Trump and risking turning off his large and loyal base.

“Trump is delaying the start of the 2024 campaign in a significant way,” said Alex Conant, a Republican operative who served as communications director to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. In a normal campaign cycle, Conant said, “you would see potential presidential candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire this month.” This year, “That’s not going to happen because nobody wants to be seen as challenging Trump.”

Grover Cleveland was the last — and so far only — president to win the White House after being defeated for reelection, and that was more than a century ago. Trump has been increasingly vocal about his desire to follow that path.

“I don’t want to wait till 2024. I want to go back three weeks,” he said at a rally Saturday evening in Georgia. That followed comments during a White House Christmas party this past week when Trump said, “We’re trying to do another four years. Otherwise, I’ll see you in four years.”

Such overtures are particularly problematic for the current and former administration officials considered among the likely contenders, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

But they also affect the long list of other Republicans who would need to win over large swaths of Trump’s base to capture the GOP nomination. That includes Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who is also seen as a potential candidate, has already said he will support Trump if he runs again.

“The reality is they all need to go along with it because they know if it’s in two years or six years, whenever they look at running again, the absolute worst thing you can be among primary voters in against Donald Trump,” said Brendan Buck, a Republican strategist who worked for the last two Republican speakers of the House.

“It’s in all of their interests to point out Trump is a loser,” he said, and yet, “most of them are tripping over themselves,” trying to deny that.

One person who could benefit from Trump’s maneuvering is Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who has emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the coronavirus pandemic. His supporters argue that if Trump did run, Hogan would enjoy a near-open lane unlike the one crowded with Trump defenders.

“There are going to be 10 or 15 people who want to be the next Donald Trump and very few people that want to go in a different direction from Trump,” Hogan said in a recent interview. The governor, who has urged Trump to concede to Democrat Joe Biden for the good of the party, has bolstered his profile with a book tour and frequent television appearances.

Hogan doesn’t think Trump will ultimately pull the trigger on another run. While he acknowledged Trump’s popularity with the Republican base, he argued that this year’s election results made clear that Americans are looking less for another Trump and more for “commonsense conservative people that were willing to work across the aisle.”

”You know, we had a good night for Republicans other than the president,” Hogan said of the Nov. 3 election results. “It wasn’t a rejection of all Republicans or wholesale acceptance of far left policies.”

Some Republicans believe the president’s freeze is a good thing, staving off internal fighting among the many contenders who had been expected to consider running.

Others worry that Trump is preventing Republicans from engaging in a postelection reckoning about the future of the party that usually comes with defeat. That would typically involve looking at why the party lost and what it should do differently to win back voters.

That has been exacerbated by Trump’s refusal to accept the election results and his baseless claims of mass voter fraud that have clouded the reality of Biden’s decisive win.

“Despite a historic loss, there has been absolutely no introspection in the party. And to the contrary, the leaders in waiting are doubling down” on Trump’s appeal-to-the-base kind of politics, Buck said.

There’s skepticism that Trump, who toyed with running numerous times before 2016, will go through with another campaign. But his dangling of the prospect will help keep him in the spotlight and raise money he can use to travel and curry additional favor.

He has already raised more than $200 million since his Election Day defeat, with a chunk of that money going to his new political committee, thanks to an endless stream of solicitations requesting contributions for an “election defense fund.”

“His agenda is to use these recounts and lawsuits to raise money, to have money to freeze the field in 2024 and to be an effective surrogate and spreader of money in 2022,” said GOP donor Dan Eberhart.

For now, the 2024 prospects are largely keeping their heads down and turning their attention to Georgia where a pair of runoff elections next month will determine which party controls the Senate. Pence was in the state Friday and Trump on Saturday, following visits by Rubio, Cotton, Scott and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Haley and others also have been raising money.

After that, focus will likely turn to 2022 as potential candidates try to boost their profiles by assisting candidates in competitive House, Senate and statehouse races.

But the lack of overt jockeying to date has dumbfounded Trump critics.

“This is when people should be jumping in the ring, fighting against him, making the argument that it’s time for the party to move away from him,” said Jennifer Horn, the former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “If they are scared off by Donald Trump’s bluster at this stage in the game after seeing the way that he lost, then they should not even be thinking of running.”

And Michael Steel, a Republican strategist, wondered how long the freeze might last.

“The obvious assumption is that his potential candidacy freezes the race, that he dominates the field like a colossus and sort of smothers any other Republican presidential efforts. There’s also a possibility, given financial challenges, potential legal challenges, and the undignified way that he has conducted himself since the election, where he is a substantially diminished figure in the not too distant future,” he said, citing Sarah Palin as an example of a once-Republican star who became a marginal figure far more quickly than many expected.

ShareTweetSend
Tyler Barker

Tyler Barker

Don't Miss

Editorials

Investments in Local Food Vital to Fending off Food Shortages

3 days ago
Editorials

Russian Aggression Reminds Us of Need for Technological Edge

1 week ago
Editorials

OP ED: Red Flag Laws Don’t Work

1 week ago

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top Stories This Week

  • Blueberry Hill announces summer schedule

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • More than Movies: Oak Hill’s Starlight Drive-In Brings the Past to the Present

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Two arrested after sexually abusing child and grooming her to become a surrogate mother

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Man arrested after making bomb threats at The Greenbrier Resort

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Rudy Giuliani was slapped inside supermarket

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Recent News

Academy for the Arts receives $10,000 grant

July 1, 2022

Boone County traffic stop leads to arrests

July 1, 2022

Alderson 4th of July Celebration event schedule

July 1, 2022

Lootpress brings you the latest news in Southern West Virginia and around.

Follow Us

Recent News

Academy for the Arts receives $10,000 grant

July 1, 2022

Boone County traffic stop leads to arrests

July 1, 2022
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Candidate Profile

© 2021 Lootpress - Your News, Now! Lootpress.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Breaking
    • Crime
    • Local
    • National
    • Politics
    • State
    • Virginia News
    • Weather News
  • County News
    • Boone County
    • Greenbrier County
    • Fayette County
    • Kanawha County
    • Logan County
    • McDowell County
    • Mercer County
    • Mingo County
    • Monroe County
    • Nicholas County
    • Putnam County
    • Raleigh County
    • Summers County
    • Tazewell County
    • Wyoming County
  • Sports
    • 2021 Prep Football Tab
    • 2021 Prep Football Playoffs
    • Local Sports
    • College Sports
    • Boys Basketball
    • Girls Basketball
    • Miners Baseball
    • Prep Baseball
    • Prep Softball
    • Prep Football
    • Prep Soccer
    • Prep Track and Field
    • Prep Volleyball
    • Golf
    • WVU Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Visit Southern WV Tourism
    • Scenic Route Podcasts
  • Editorials
  • About Us
    • Contact Us

© 2021 Lootpress - Your News, Now! Lootpress.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist