Well, it seems that campaigns in America never really end. Here we are. After the election. Not all the ballots have been counted. Not all the races have been called. But last Tuesday, one week after Election Day, the 2024 campaign was kicked off.
Former President Trump announced that he was going to try again to get another term in office.
Now, the response was not exactly what Mr. Trump might have wanted. Consider Republican officeholders, for example. Governor Chris Sununu, one of the leading Republicans in New England, declared it was a terrible time for the former president to announce his campaign.
Michael Lawler, a congressman from New York, who unseated the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it’s time to move on. Lindsey Graham, a longtime ally of the president, refused to endorse him.
The President himself went after two other very popular governors. Glen Younkin of Virginia. He said his last name sounds Chinese. And then again, there was Ron DeSantis, who won an overwhelming victory in Florida, which by the way, is also Trump’s home state. And Trump went out and called him a mediocre governor. The voters of the state didn’t feel that way.
Most of his high roller supporters from last time – the billionaires – have already said they’re going to pass on contributing to him in this campaign.
And finally, his favorite daughter, Ivanka, married to Jared Kushner, announced she was not going to participate in the campaign in any way.
She wanted to spend time with her children. Now, I know Ivanka and I believe her. She is a very devoted mother. It may not have had anything to do with her father, but not being involved in your father’s presidential campaign at all, is a bit telling.
Then there were the polls. A YouGov poll taken right after the midterm election, found DeSantis beating Trump in a national primary by 10 points. A month earlier, Trump was ahead by seven. The Club for Growth, which is a pro free market, conservative group, polled in four important battleground states. The first two, in terms of the primaries, first was Iowa. DeSantis is now beating Trump, they’re 48 to 37. In New Hampshire, DeSantis is beating Trump by 52 to 37 points. In Florida, their home states, DeSantis is beating Trump 56 to 30. And in nearby Georgia, he’s winning 55 to 35.
Trump is way down in the polls, whereas only a couple of months ago he was highly favored.
And then to top it off, the Texas Republican Party serving Texas Republicans found DeSantis ahead of Trump 43 to 32. This is not a good sign. Why the shift in attitude toward Donald Trump?
Well, it mainly had to do with what happened during the election. Most Republicans think that Trump did a credible job as President in terms of his policy outcomes. Except for COVID, there was record setting prosperity. We had no foreign entanglements, gas prices ended his term at $2.12. But then again, there’s a tendency to wish that he would fade off into the sunset as an elder statesman.
Well, the midterm elections gelled that sentiment, because, well, the former president made mistake after mistake. First of all, he picked bad candidates, he endorsed bad candidates in Republican primaries, ones that were, you know, less likely to win than someone else.
How do we know that? Well, the Democrats ended up spending money supporting – lots of money I might add – supporting the candidates in the Republican primary that Trump had endorsed. That’s hardly a sign that the Democrats think that they’re tough to beat.
And then on Monday night, the night before the election, Trump reinserted himself as the topic of the news by teasing the announcement he ended up making a week later. This could only have hurt the Republicans, as the Democrats main issue was Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. You look at all over, the former president does not have the support of office holders. He is way behind in the polls.
Most Republicans are mad at him for putting himself first ahead of the party. I’ve said this before to this group. I’ll say it again. Donald Trump is not going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024.
This is Larry Lindsey for Straight Arrow News.
