GOP Senate candidates want you to forget their past criticisms of Trump

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In 2016, Bernie Moreno sounded like many Republicans appalled at the prospect of Donald Trump becoming president.

A wealthy and politically active businessman from Ohio, Moreno had immigrated to the United States from Colombia as a child, and was outraged by Trump’s rhetoric on immigration so much that he compared the candidate to the GOP to Adolf Hitler in a Twitter poll.

We can’t throw away people who came here as kids. They don’t know anyone from their home country, Moreno said in a 2016 interview, defending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. We must help them out of the shadows.

When Trump won and proposed to rescind DACA, Moreno was involved with an organization backed by Michael Bloomberg that pushed back against the decision.

Six years later, of course, many of Trump’s fiercest critics have become his strongest allies. But as his legal troubles and political baggage pile up, many top Republican officials, candidates and donors are eager to move on.

Moreno is not one of them. As he launches a campaign to oust Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the former Trump apostate has decked himself in MAGA insignia, from his support for Trumps 2024 candidacy to his culture of Trumpworld numbers in going through his once tough stance on immigration.

As Morenos’ kingpin was in full swing during his brief and failed Senate bid in 2022, as he plans to win the GOP primary in 2024, he’s ramping up the volume. The playbook worked for now-Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), once hater of Trump, who won that 2022 primary and then the general election. He endorsed Moreno to join him in the Senate.

With Biden administrations managing the US-Mexico border a major issue for Trump and Republicans, Moreno has excoriated the policies he once advocated and the politicians who support them.

It’s not hard, Moreno tweeted in April. When our political leaders continually push open border policies and signal that people will be able to cross the border illegally, without penalty, and potentially stay here for years, then more people try to do so. Close the border. Stop the invasion.

In a recent podcast interview, Moreno went so far as to compare the migrants now crossing the southern border to the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks. The Moreno campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding its past comments on Trump and immigration.

On the emerging Senate battleground of 2024, Moreno isn’t the only GOP hopeful to have covered up or outright erased his past opposition or even just his ambivalence toward Trump and his trademark policies for wholehearted support. .

Trump remains the Republican Party’s political center of gravity, GOP strategist Ken Spain said. Candidates facing potential primaries are clearly looking to reintegrate into the base.

Take Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV), the favorite to face Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). A former Democrat, Justice was a vocal Trump supporter, then cooled off on the former president in 2020, poking fun at his performance in presidential debates and decrying the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In interviews in January 2021, Justice didn’t even say whether or not Trump should be purged from the GOP, telling CNN he didn’t really think he should have a really solid opinion on the matter. Justice also said anyone with a brain would say he overshot his skis.

Now facing a GOP primary, Justice is more effusive than ever in his praise and support for Trump. He called his indictment in Manhattan court a travesty that shows disrespect for the commitment and accomplishments President Trump has given us. He even thanked the Trump family on behalf of West Virginia, especially my hunter buddies Don Jr. and Eric.

I’ve always treasured our friendships,” Justice said of Trump’s oldest sons.

In response to questions from The Daily Beast about the governor’s account of Trump’s comments, Justice’s campaign manager Roman Stauffer said Justice is strongly behind the former president.

He has a strong friendship with the Trump family, especially Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr, Stauffer said, adding that their main rival, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), is backed by the Club for Growth, which is openly at war. with Trump.

In Montana, wealthy businessman Tim SheehySenate GOP brass preferred candidate to face Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) recently said he supports Trump 2024 100%. But he didn’t vote for Trump in the 2016 primary and donated the maximum amount to Nikki Haleys PAC after Jan. 6. His first campaign check to Trump came this year.

As Trump faces stronger resistance from the GOP than at any time since 2016, many observers will be looking for clues as to the durability of his grip on the party. The fact that leading Republican candidates are actively moving towards him as they seek to win over primary voters is as good an indication as anything other than Trump is still dominant.

For many Republicans, this is bad news. In 2020 and 2022, the GOP’s failures to win Senate majorities have been widely attributed to Trump’s involvement. Prior to 2024, with a Senate map that is stacked in favor of the GOP, party leaders are trying to minimize the influence of former presidents in the primaries and perhaps thought the political momentum would help them.

Coming out of 2022, I think Republicans hoped his influence had waned, Spain said. There was a lot of hope at the time that Ron DeSantis was climbing the party ladder and that Republicans would have to rely less on Trump to generate momentum for the nominations.

But if the warmth towards Trump from their rookies is any indication, that’s not happening, putting an unnecessary damper on their 2024 chances.

It caps potential gains, Spain said. That’s a sharp negative for the Republican outlook in 2024. But you can’t make it to the general election unless you survive the primary, and he holds the keys to the primary electorate.

This fundamental dynamic of GOP politics may complicate a number of potential campaigns or cause hopefuls to reconsider running altogether. Recently, Politico reported that top GOP recruits for the House and Senate are reluctant to run if Trump will be leading the 2024 ticket.

It’s uncomfortable even for Republicans who have traditionally fitted into the MAGA mold. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who is also mulling a run against Tester, has long been a staunch Trump ally. But he refrained from endorsing it in 2024 despite appearing personally at the post-indictment rally in Mar-a-Lagos, as his wealthy supporters at the conservative Club For Growth wage war on Trump.

For potential candidates with distinctly non-MAGA records, the prospect of running for office while forcing a hug from Trump or trying to keep a strategic distance can be painful or unpleasant.

The dilemma may be most acute for one of the GOP’s top Senate recruits: hedge fund titan David McCormick, who is expected to challenge Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and would be a formidable contender in the general election.

But McCormick, as a non-Trumpy, a major contender the GOP has seen in recent years, may not be able to survive a primary. In fact, he hasn’t already: in 2022, he was beaten by Trump-backed Mehmet Oz, who then lost to the current senator. John Fetterman, as Trump criticized him for being a Wall Street Republican.

Former finance giant Bridgewater CEO McCormick says he didn’t support Trump in 2016, didn’t buy into 2020 election plots, blamed Trump’s feet for 6 January and indicated that he had no intention of supporting Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.

Asked about Trump’s offer in an April interview with CNN, McCormick said Republicans need a positive outlook to address issues that affect everyday Americans and said pro-minded campaigns backwards, not forwards, would not succeed.

It’s possible McCormick could face an ultra-Trumpy candidate in the far-right 2024 state primary, Sen. Doug Mastriano, who blew himself up in the 2022 gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania.

Another potential GOP nominee in the McCormick mold is John Tuttle, the vice president of the New York Stock Exchange, who is considering a race for the Michigan Open Senate seat.

Unlike many Republicans who dislike Trump but praise his economic policies, Tuttle has actually expressed doubts about the past presidents’ record. It’s a mixed bag, Tuttle said in a January 2019 interview. I think his policies are definitely impacting the market for better or worse in some cases.

Although he has generously donated to various GOP candidates and causes, Tuttle has not once donated a dime to Trump or a PAC associated with him. In 2015, he contributed the legal maximum of $2,700 to the presidential candidacy of Marco Rubios.

Other establishment-friendly candidates, meanwhile, carry a new kind of baggage in Trumps GOP: open support for his biggest rival.

In Wisconsin, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R), a Navy veteran who chairs the Houses China Select Committee, hasn’t ruled out a run against Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D), and GOP brass openly hope that he will enter the race. But Gallagher has ruled out ever backing Trump after Jan. 6; in April, he was listed as a co-host of a DC meet for DeSantis.

Another potential candidate from Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, introduced DeSantis during a speech in Ohio in April. He said he has no plans to endorse the 2024 race any time soon. LaRose, who administered the 2020 election in Ohio, pushed back against Trump’s voter fraud allegations, albeit indirectly. After the 2020 election, LaRose said, it’s irresponsible when Republicans say an election was stolen and don’t have proof.

According to Spain, the GOP strategist, candidates have tended to fare poorly when trying to thread the needle when it comes to Trumpwooing his voters without going outright to MAGA.

Voters are able to discern whether a candidate is genuine or not, he said. Well, finding out whether or not what some of these candidates are doing is enough to pass the course.

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