President Trump
Donald Trump Trump calls the second round of the Georgia Senate ‘both illegal and invalid’ in New Year’s tweets. Judge rejects Gohmert’s electoral process against Pence Former Republican Party senator suggests forming a new party, calls Trump the ‘master’ of Republicans MORE it casts a long shadow over the Republican Party, even when its attempts to hold on to power seem doomed to failure.
Trump may run again in 2024. If he does, it is difficult to see anyone beat him by the Republican nomination.
Although Trump lost the presidential election by about 7 million votes, he is by far the most popular figure in the country among Republican voters. He has enormous fundraising skills – he raised about $ 170 million in the month after the election – and he can attract media attention like no one else.
Still, Trump will be 78 in the next election. He also faces financial pressure, with large debts falling due in the coming years. He will continue to head the headlines, but there are solid reasons why he cannot run for president again.
There are speculative rumors that one of Trump’s sons, perhaps his eldest daughter Ivanka, could enter the political arena. But here are some other frontline candidates for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Nikki Haley
Nimrata (Nikki) HaleyMichelle Obama elected the most admired woman for the third consecutive year: The Memo poll: Could Pence run and win in 2024? Pat Robertson says Trump lives in an ‘alternate reality’ and Biden will be president MORE
Haley was the acting governor of South Carolina when Trump chose her to become the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations at the beginning of his term. She served in the position for almost two years.
Haley is easy to defend: her role in the Trump administration aligns her with the president and gives her some goodwill with her supporters. At the same time, it has other resources that could attract the kind of well-educated suburban people who turned on Trump with decisive effect in November.
She is made of a more conventional ideological fabric than the president, like a traditional pro-business Republican. Haley has also always been an object of media fascination, in part because she was the first woman and the first black person to serve as governor of South Carolina. Her parents are immigrants from Punjab, India.
Haley was also governor during the time of the Charleston massacre in 2015, when nine faithful from a historic black church were murdered by a white supremacist sniper. Haley supported the removal of the Confederation flag from the capital of South Carolina in the aftermath.
Haley has her detractors. Some in Trump’s orbit have always looked at her with caution. She had first supported Sen. Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio RubioSeven Senate races to be observed in 2022 Pelosi pressures McConnell to allow voting on a $ 2,000 stimulus check bill. (R-Fla.) And later Sen. Ted Cruz
Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzCongress cancels Trump’s veto for the first time Hawley confuses GOP with Electoral College fights Hawley to challenge the results of the Electoral College in the Senate MORE (R-Texas) at the 2016 GOP primaries. Others in the relentless world of South Carolina politics say it has more style than substance.
Still, if Haley runs away, she will immediately be seen as a first-rate candidate.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
Cruz was runner-up for Trump in 2016, and few doubt that he could get a second chance at the grand prize.
The 2016 race turned into a flurry of insults between the two men. Trump insulted Cruz’s wife and hinted that his father was somehow involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.
Cruz called Trump “totally amoral”, “a pathological liar” and “a weeping coward”, among other things. Cruz also refused to endorse Trump at the 2016 Republican Party convention.
Since then, however, Cruz has become a strong supporter of the president – including on Twitter, where the Texas senator has a particularly combative personality.
A Cruz 2024 candidacy would be built on the same pillars as its initial campaign, with the support of social conservatives being vital. Many conservatives have always been skeptical about whether Trump really had a firm ideological base. These doubts do not exist with Cruz.
Cruz’s critics often say that he lacks sympathy and that he was disputed by then Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in his race for the 2018 Senate re-election. But he would be a formidable opponent for his nomination. broken.
Sen. Josh Hawley
Joshua (Josh) David Hawley Former GOP senator suggests forming a new party, calls Trump the ‘boss’ of Republicans Georgia keeps the Senate agenda in limbo Frustrations increase when $ 1,000 checks blocked for the fourth consecutive day MORE (R-Mo.)
Hawley has already stated that he would support Trump in 2024 if the president runs again.
If Trump goes over the top, however, many in the GOP will see Hawley as well placed to take on his populist mantle.
Hawley favored a broader relief program for workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. He broadly supports Trump’s protectionist trade policies. He has also fired several times at technology corporations, which, in his opinion, have excessive power.
The Missouri senator is firmly conservative on a number of other issues, including immigration and abortion.
Hawley also stands out for its youth. At 40, he is the youngest member of the Senate.
Critics rolled their eyes at Hawley’s populist proclamations.
Kevin McDermott, a columnist for The St Louis Post-Dispatch, recently complained that “no one commits false populist outrage like this self-styled enemy of the ‘elite’ who has degrees at Stanford and Yale.”
Still, if the Republican Party is looking for a message of Trump-like populism delivered by a more affable courier, the party may well turn to Hawley.
Vice President Pence
Pence served loyally alongside Trump for four years, only to make the president angry at what he considered insufficient support for his attempts to overturn the election result.
On December 23, Trump went so far as to retweet a suggestion that Pence should somehow refuse to accept electoral votes from several crucial states.
Virtually no one expects Pence to access the implicit request, but that highlights the tricky position for the vice president as he looks at 2024.
On the one hand, he would be a renowned candidate due to the position he holds now. On the other hand, his personal behavior and political style are a far cry from Trump’s.
Pence would likely find himself competing with rivals like Cruz for the votes of social conservatives. Other senior members of the Trump administration may also seek the nomination – Haley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Mike PompeoMicrosoft says hackers saw the source code as part of the SolarWinds attack. Lawsuit aims at the State Department to sell more than one billion weapons to the United Arab Emirates. are widely considered interested.
It is plausible that Pence could win, and the pre-Trump GOP tended to grant his nomination to the person considered “next in line”. But it is equally plausible that he could be flanked by more charismatic contenders.
Sen. Tom Cotton
Tom Bryant CottonCongress overturns Trump’s veto for the first time Hawley confuses GOP with Electoral College fights with Hawley to challenge Senate Electoral College results MORE (R-Ark.)
Cotton, like Cruz and Hawley, is firmly located in the conservative wing of the party. In a primary GOP, this is clearly a good thing.
He is about to begin his second term as a senator, having easily defeated a libertarian opponent in November. No serious Democrats have bothered to challenge the seat.
During the final days of this year’s election campaign, the Associated Press noted Cotton’s expansive efforts to help Republican candidates in other states, including the first battlegrounds in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries.
“Your schedule has all the characteristics of someone focused on the White House in 2024,” noted the AP.
Cotton is an Army veteran, having served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He ticks conservative boxes on almost every major issue, including abortion and immigration.
His views on race were not without controversy, however. A furor followed the publication of a New York Times opinion article he wrote in June amid protests against the assassination of George Floyd, entitled “Send the troops”. In it, Cotton called for “a show of overwhelming strength to disperse, detain and, ultimately, deter offenders.”
As with Cruz, there are real questions about Cotton’s sympathy beyond the conservative basis.
Other potential candidates: Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson
Tucker CarlsonWarnock says he will focus on Georgians after ex-wife Chris Wallace’s video defending Jill Biden: No one “made a fuss” for calling Martin Luther King Jr. a “doctor.” More Americans than ever are suspicious of the news; here’s why and what to do about it MORE, Former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie
Chris ChristieBiden praises Christie for wearing a mask Nothing becomes Donald Trump’s presidency as much as he left it GOP Senator for Trump forgives: ‘This is rotten to the core’ MORE, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantisSeven Senate disputes to assist in 2022 Getting the COVID-19 vaccine: Where should we stand in line? The memo: Could Pence run and win in 2024? MORE, Maryland Governor, Larry Hogan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Marco Rubio (Florida), Senator Rick Scott (Florida), Ivanka Trump
Ivanka TrumpHow Congress rejected women’s empowerment Perdue pressured Trump to sign the coronavirus relief bill: report that Trump’s call for K checks puts pressure on Georgia’s Republican senators MORE.