‘Image of a Loser’: Trump 2024 Gets Endorsements From Just FOUR of 168 RNC Members Contacted By NYT
The New York Times reached out to all 168 members of the Republican National Committee to ask about Donald Trump’s run for president in 2024 — and just four offered an endorsement.
The reluctance of the RNC members to back Trump is a stunning departure from the last few years, an era in which his stranglehold on the GOP could be reasonably described as a personality cult. (To give you a sense of just how much Trump owned this iteration of the RNC: chairwoman Ronna McDaniel dropped the “Romney” from her name at the behest of the former president).
Per the Times:
The New York Times called, emailed or texted all 168 R.N.C. members. Just four offered an unabashed endorsement of Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign. Twenty said the former president should not be the party’s nominee. An additional 35 said they would like to see a big primary field or declined to state their position on Mr. Trump. The remainder did not respond to messages.
In interviews, some R.N.C. members estimated that between 120 and 140 of them preferred someone besides Mr. Trump to be their party’s presidential nominee.
“This isn’t 2016,” Kentucky national committee member Mac Brown told the Times. “People have moved on.”
“I’ve been a supporter of Donald Trump in the past,” Arkansas member Jonathan Barnett said. “I just think that we need choices this time. We’ve got to look at all of our options.”
All 168 members of the RNC are gathered in Dana Point, California for a meeting that will culminate on Friday with the election for a new leader.
Ronna McDaniel, who has served three terms as RNC chair, is seeking another two-year term. She faces a challenge from Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer and California national committee member who has mounted a threatening challenge.
The Times pinpoints several factors in the RNC’s turn away from Trump, including the committee funding the former president’s legal defense bills in the investigations into his businesses. The Times also reports that RNC members see Trump as having “taken on the image of a loser after his 2020 defeat to President Biden.”
“Trump’s subsequent refusal to accept the results and his endorsements of G.O.P. candidates in 2022 who stressed their devotion to him — and then lost seats in key battleground states including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have some saying they are ready for a divorce,” the Times reports.
