February 5, 2020

NeverTrump Challengers Fail First Big Test

For six months, some of President Trump’s most implacable foes have invested great hope in two Republicans — former Rep. Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld — who are challenging the president for the GOP nomination.

For six months, some of President Trump’s most implacable foes have invested great hope in two Republicans — former Rep. Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld — who are challenging the president for the GOP nomination. Could they do some damage to Trump’s re-election prospects?

In the Iowa caucuses, that hope was put to a first test. It failed.

In the state’s Republican caucuses — yes, there were Republican caucuses, and they ran smoothly, unlike the Democratic contest — the Walsh and Weld candidacies fizzled.

In the end, Trump won 97.15% of the vote, to Walsh’s 1.08% and Weld’s 1.31%. Others — write-ins of various people — totaled 0.47%. It was a striking show of strength for the president.

Beyond that, turnout was high for a year in which an incumbent president is assured of renomination. In 2016, about 180,000 Republican voters turned up for Iowa caucuses. But that was a highly competitive year in which Trump battled Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and a number of other candidates. The last time there was a non-competitive GOP race, that is, a race with an incumbent president, was in 2004, when President George W. Bush was in the White House. That year, about 8,000 Republicans showed up for what were essentially meaningless caucuses.

This year, the turnout was 32,320, an impressive number for an incumbent year.

Delighted state GOP officials owed a lot to the president’s decision to make a serious effort in Iowa this caucus season. First, he visited Des Moines and held a rally last Thursday; it was far bigger than any event staged by any Democratic candidate. Then, Trump sent more than 80 surrogates to the state, including his two sons, a slate of Cabinet members, Republican congressmen and GOP governors. Then, the Trump campaign stepped up its social media work in the state.

The reason was not that Trump was afraid of Walsh or Weld. The reason was that Trump was trying to strengthen support in Iowa, a swing state won by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, so that it will be in the Trump general election win column before Democrats even pick their candidate.

Organizers of the caucus in Ames, home to Iowa State University, hoped that perhaps 100 people would show up. And that was with the participation of one of the campaign’s star surrogates, presidential son Donald Trump Jr. As it turned out, 449 people showed up to vote, and another 80 or so came just to watch what was going on.

By and large, the attendees did not merely like the president; they loved the president.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” said Rod Kern.

“I am thrilled with him,” said Paula Anderson.

“Best president we’ve ever had, outside of Reagan, maybe,” said Bob Folkmann.

“I hope people are telling you they are so excited about our president,” said Joyce Hoffman. (They were.)

“I’m so on for Trump,” said Andrea Hrbek. “I have not loved a Republican president like Trump.” Hrbek explained that she voted for Bush, McCain and Romney but today feels a bit embarrassed by each vote. Not so with Trump.

And so on.

At caucuses, representatives of each candidate are supposed to have a little time to tell the audience why they should vote for that candidate. In Ames, Trump Jr. was the star of the show, talking for more than 20 minutes about his father’s accomplishments, and also dwelling on the investigations to which Democrats have subjected Trump and his family.

Jeff Ortiz, the co-chair of the Story County GOP, went from table to table, asking people if anyone would like to make remarks on behalf of Walsh or Weld. There were no takers.

In the end, out of 449 votes, Trump received 415, Walsh 20, and Weld 9. There was one write-in each for a disparate group: Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, and Dispatch writer David French. One person abstained.

In the end, Ortiz was delighted with a turnout more than four times what he originally expected. Yes, that was a display of clout by Trump, but it was also an organizational shot in the arm for the local party.

“It’s critical that we get these people to turn out, to sign up for our central committees, to stay involved right up until the end,” Ortiz said. “Because there are no guarantees come November.”

As good as the result was for the Trump team, it was at best a discouraging outcome for the NeverTrump challenge. In late January, former Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol pleaded on Twitter: “Iowa Republicans: Caucus for Joe Walsh or Bill Weld or uncommitted. You’re better than Donald Trump. Don’t stoop to support this man so unworthy of your support.”

Iowa Republicans ignored the entreaty, and many others that came before it.

Now the campaign is on to New Hampshire. As in Iowa, Trump plans a rally in the state before the primary. Again there will be surrogates, and again there will be stepped-up online campaigning. The result could be another difficult night for the quixotic Republican effort to stop the president.

COPYRIGHT 2020 BYRON YORK

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.