{"id":200771,"date":"2019-02-04T02:36:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T07:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=200771"},"modified":"2019-02-04T02:36:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T07:36:28","slug":"trump-campaign-takes-steps-to-prevent-a-challenge-within-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/04\/trump-campaign-takes-steps-to-prevent-a-challenge-within-gop\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump campaign takes steps to prevent a challenge within GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Trump’s campaign is closely monitoring the intentions of Kasich and other potential primary challengers, and aides said they expect someone to mount a campaign for the nomination. But they insist their efforts are not borne out of fear that\u00a0Trump\u00a0is vulnerable. (File Photo<\/a>: Donald J. Trump\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Worried about a potential Republican primary challenge, President Donald\u00a0Trump’s campaign has launched a state-by-state effort to prevent an intraparty fight that could spill over into the general-election campaign.<\/p>\n

The nascent initiative has been an intense focus in recent weeks and includes taking steps to change state party rules, crowd out potential rivals and quell any early signs of opposition that could embarrass the president.<\/p>\n

It is an acknowledgement that\u00a0Trump, who effectively hijacked the Republican Party in 2016, hasn’t completely cemented his grip on the GOP and, in any event, is not likely to coast to the 2020 GOP nomination without some form of opposition. While any primary challenge would almost certainly be unsuccessful,\u00a0Trump\u00a0aides are looking to prevent a repeat of the convention discord that highlighted the electoral weaknesses of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter in their failed re-election campaigns.<\/p>\n

To defend against that prospect,\u00a0Trump’s campaign has deployed what it calls an unprecedented effort to monitor and influence local party operations. It has used endorsements, lobbying and rule changes to increase the likelihood that only loyal\u00a0Trump\u00a0activists make it to the Republican nominating convention in August 2020.<\/p>\n

Bill Stepien, a senior adviser to the\u00a0Trump\u00a0campaign, calls it all a \u201cprocess of ensuring that the national convention is a television commercial for the president for an audience of 300 million and not an internal fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

One early success for\u00a0Trump’s campaign was in Massachusetts, where\u00a0Trump\u00a0backer and former state Rep. Jim Lyons last month defeated the candidate backed by Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, a\u00a0Trump\u00a0critic, to serve as the state party chairman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a constant focus on tracking everything regarding this process,\u201d Stepien said. \u201cWho’s running, what their level of support for the president is and what their vote counts are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign’s work extends beyond state party leadership races, which are taking place in many key states in the coming weeks.\u00a0Trump’s team plans to organize at county and state caucuses and conventions over the next 18 months to elevate pro-Trump\u00a0leaders and potential delegates. Ahead of the convention, it aims to have complete control of the convention agenda, rules and platform \u2014 and to identify any potential trouble-makers well in advance.<\/p>\n

That sort of organization is a leap from\u00a0Trump’s 2016 delegate operation, which faced challenges by anti-Trump\u00a0activists in the party.\u00a0Trump\u00a0aides say it’s the most aggressive effort ever launched to protect an incumbent.<\/p>\n

Nick Trainer, a White House veteran named last month as the campaign’s director of delegates and party organization, is leading a team of three to co-ordinate with state and local parties in the run-up to the convention.<\/p>\n

Yet the efforts to protect\u00a0Trump\u00a0simply highlight his vulnerability, said an adviser to one potential Republican opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re not talented, but they’re not idiotic. They rightfully understand that he could be badly damaged or lose in a nomination battle. They’re doing too much. It looks weak,\u201d said John Weaver, a senior adviser to former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of the few high-profile Republicans seriously contemplating a primary challenge.<\/p>\n

Trump’s campaign is closely monitoring the intentions of Kasich and other potential primary challengers, and aides said they expect someone to mount a campaign for the nomination. But they insist their efforts are not borne out of fear that\u00a0Trump\u00a0is vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Primary challenges against incumbent presidents have never been successful in the modern era. And\u00a0Trump’s poll numbers among Republican voters have proven to be resilient. Still, his aides said they are taking lessons from one-term leaders who lost their re-elections after embarrassing nominating fights.<\/p>\n

Those in the past who challenged a president both distracted the incumbent from the November campaign and offered a voice to intraparty discontent, seeding weaknesses that were exploited by a general-election rival.<\/p>\n

Pat Buchanan’s campaign against Bush in 1992 focused in part on highlighting Bush’s broken pledge not to raise taxes, a vulnerability that dogged Bush throughout the campaign. In a show of party unity Buchanan was awarded the opening night keynote at that year’s GOP convention. He delivered a \u201cculture war\u201d speech that Bush loyalists believed contributed to his loss.<\/p>\n

As an incumbent,\u00a0Trump\u00a0already wields control over the Republican National Committee, which voted last month to express its \u201cundivided support\u201d for\u00a0Trump\u00a0and his \u201ceffective presidency.\u201d But he’s getting a boost from well-placed allies at the state level.<\/p>\n

In Iowa, the state Republican Party adopted new rules more than a year ago to seize control of the delegate selection process in direct response to the messy convention floor fight in Cleveland in 2016. Virtually all of Iowa’s delegates had preferred Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and they fought unsuccessfully to oppose\u00a0Trump\u00a0at the convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was embarrassing. It was troubling. To be honest with you, it made me mad,\u201d said Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufman, a strong\u00a0Trump\u00a0supporter. \u201cDonald\u00a0Trump\u00a0won the Republican nomination fair and square. That was about people not accepting a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new rules, made in consultation with the White House, would make it much more difficult for a\u00a0Trump\u00a0challenger to install anti-Trump\u00a0delegates after the caucuses. Smart campaigns with energized activists, like Cruz’s and Ron Paul’s before him, had been able to send their own loyalists to the national convention regardless of the wishes of party leaders or caucus voters. No more.<\/p>\n

Going forward, a nominating committee that’s already been named by the pro-Trump\u00a0state central committee will control the delegate selection process.<\/p>\n

Kaufman said that technically, he and the rest of the state GOP would be neutral should\u00a0Trump\u00a0face a primary challenge. He makes clear, however, that he’s been a strong supporter of the president and doesn’t see a serious primary challenge on the horizon.<\/p>\n

It’s much the same in New Hampshire, where party leaders must technically remain neutral to preserve their status as the first-in-the-nation primary. But the\u00a0Trump\u00a0campaign backed Saturday’s election of new state GOP Chairman Stephen Stepanek, who served as\u00a0Trump’s state co-chairman in 2016.<\/p>\n

Stepanek was the preferred choice over former state chair Jennifer Horn, who emerged as an outspoken\u00a0Trump\u00a0critic since leaving the chairmanship after the 2016 election.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, states like South Carolina and Kansas are openly discussing cancelling their primaries and caucuses, but the\u00a0Trump\u00a0campaign insists it is staying out of those discussions, noting that state parties in some states are required to foot the bill for nominating contests.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Peoples reported from New York.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Worried about a potential Republican primary challenge, President Donald\u00a0Trump’s campaign has launched a state-by-state effort to prevent an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":190128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-zeke-miller-and-steve-peoples","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}