WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump stepped up his election-year efforts to dominate the Republican Party with a rally Saturday in Arizona, where he lashed out at anyone daring to question his lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, including the state’s GOP Governor Doug Ducey.
But 2,000 miles east in Washington, there are small signs that some Republicans are sick of the charade. Mike Rounds, the generally humble South Dakota Senator, was perhaps the boldest when he acknowledged the fact that the election was indeed fair. Rather than being shunned, he was endorsed by his GOP peers, including Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. Rounds later said the party needed to “get louder” to tell voters the truth about the 2020 campaign.
Meanwhile, leading Republicans in Washington have been working behind the scenes to encourage Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, one of the party’s most vocal opponents of Trump, to run for a Senate seat. And on Saturday, Glenn Youngkin became the first Republican to be sworn in as governor of Virginia since 2010 after leading a campaign that kept Trump at bay.
With less than two months to go before the 2022 primary begins, Trump remains the most popular figure among voters who will decide which Republicans will advance to the general election in the fall. But the recent momentum brings new clarity to the debate that the GOP is likely to animate throughout the year: how closely candidates should align themselves with Trump and his election lie.
“I’ve been very heartened by the response from a number of different senators supporting the senator rounds,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was a rare Republican and urged the party to break away from Trump and his electoral obsession.
There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim that the election was stolen. Election officials and his own Attorney General dismissed the idea. Trump’s arguments have also been flatly dismissed by the courts, including judges appointed by the former president.
Still, dissenting opinion on Trump’s election lie remains rare within the GOP. From Ohio to Georgia and Arizona, candidates running for Senate, governor and attorney general have wholeheartedly embraced Trump’s untruths as they attempted to win his support, deflect his anger, or win his base.
In the short term, such a positioning can help Republican candidates assert themselves in the often-crowded primary fields. But there are concerns it could hurt the party in the fall, particularly among suburban voters who have become increasingly determined in recent campaigns. Now, as Republicans move to the right, it could become easier for their Democratic rivals to portray them as extreme in a general election.
And any time candidates spend looking back is time they don’t spend attacking President Joe Biden, who is considered particularly vulnerable due to rising inflation and coronavirus cases.
“It’s one of those subjects that’s extremely popular in an elementary school and unpopular in a general,” said Chris DeRose, a Republican attorney and former clerk for the Supreme Court in Maricopa County, Arizona.
He said candidates, who often privately acknowledge the election was fair, were clearly courting the former president by expressing skepticism about the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump is obviously the most coveted confirmation among Republican candidates,” he said. “That can make all the difference in a Republican primary.”
John Shimkus, a Republican and former Illinois congressman, said it’s easy for “armchair quarterbacks” who aren’t on the ballot to judge candidates who are doing whatever it takes to win their primary.
“All races are run and highlighted by Trump [Fox News]. So these candidates have to be very, very careful. You have to win the primaries to win the general,” he said.
However, the risk is clear in the Arizona Senate race. In a year that favors Republicans, the state should be a relatively achievable pickup, and some in the party are excited for Ducey to enter the race against Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly. But Trump’s repeated attacks on Ducey, who has refused to support election conspiracies, could make it difficult for him to succeed in a GOP primary.
Ahead of his trip, Trump made a statement that he would never support Ducey.
Whatever Republicans come out on top in Arizona and other critical races will have to convince voters that they should participate in an electoral system that Trump has ridiculed for years as rigged.
Many Republicans still blame Trump for the party’s loss in Georgia’s two Senate runoffs in 2021, arguing he depressed turnout by insisting the election was being rigged and giving them control of the Senate refused. Trump has argued that further investigation is the only way to inspire confidence in future elections.
“Trump still has this outsized voice and influence, and too many candidates fear his wrath,” said Charlie Dent, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and a Trump critic. “We know that Donald Trump will use his megaphone to condemn those who don’t believe his lies and false narrative about the 2020 election. So these candidates are left with a quandary: if they tell the truth, they risk losing their primaries and incur the wrath of Trump, and if they condone this nonsense and go along with it, they risk becoming very alienated voters.”
Still, DeRose said he has no concerns that the issue will depress voter turnout, despite events in Georgia.
“The Republican base is pretty excited,” he said, predicting turnout at levels seen in 2010, when Republicans made historic gains in the House of Representatives. Faced with rising inflation and continued criticism of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said, “Things are not going well in this country and I think you’re going to see that huge setback.”
Others disagreed. Barbara Comstock, a Trump critic and former GOP congresswoman from Virginia, warned Republicans against nominating fringe candidates who would lose in the general.
“Republicans feel like they’re going to win no matter who’s on the ticket. And I don’t agree with that thesis,” she said, pointing to Ohio, where Senate candidates have been desperate to outdo each other. “I think you’re really taking a chance on blowing reliable races.”
Nonetheless, Trump is expected to continue hammering the issue on Saturday in Florence, Arizona, a Republican stronghold about 70 miles southeast of Phoenix. It’s the first of what aides say will be an accelerated pace of Trump events in the coming months. Trump on Friday announced another rally later in January in Texas, where the March 1 primary officially kicks off the midterm campaign.
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