For the first time in more than a decade, Republicans are waking up to a Washington where Democrats control the White House and Congress as the party confronts questions about what it stands for without Donald Trump in charge.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the few Republican-elected officials who regularly condemned Trumpism, evoked President Ronald Reagan in calling this moment “a time for choosing.”
“We have to decide if we’re going to continue heading down the direction of Donald Trump or if we’re going to return to our roots,” Hogan, a potential 2024 White House contender, said in an Associated Press interview. “The party would be much better off if they were to purge themselves of Donald Trump. But I don’t think there’s any hope of him completely going away.”
Whether the party moves on may come down to what Republicans including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who might eye a 2024 White House run, do next. Cruz spent weeks touting Trump’s claims of election fraud. Trump’s claims were rejected in the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump.
Cruz told the AP that Trump would remain a significant part of the political conversation, but that the Republican Party should move away from divisive “language and tone and rhetoric” that alienated suburban voters, particularly women, in recent elections.
“President Trump surely will continue to make his views known, and they’ll continue to have a real impact, but I think the country going forward wants policies that work, and I think as a party, we need to do a better job winning hearts and minds,” Cruz said.
Just like in 2020, Cruz will be a part of Trump’s second impeachment trial in the Senate. “I hope that Republicans won’t participate in this petty, vindictive, final attack directed at President Trump,” he said. “We should just move on.”
Cruz was the runner-up to Trump in 2016, a race that, according to Politico, descended into insults between the two men. Trump insulted Cruz’s wife and insinuated that his father had somehow been involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Cruz called Trump “utterly amoral,” “a pathological liar” and “a sniveling coward,” among other things. Cruz declined to endorse Trump at the 2016 GOP convention but later became a vocal supporter of the former president.
Trump left office with a 34% approval rating, according to Gallup — the lowest of his presidency — but the majority of Republicans, 82%, approved of his job performance. Even as some try to move on, Trump’s continued popularity with the GOP’s base ensures he will remain a political force.
Republicans are well within reach of retaking one or both chambers of Congress in next year’s midterm elections, where the Oval Office’s incumbent party typically fares poorly. Since the 2006 midterms, the party in the White House has lost on average 37 House seats. Currently, Democrats hold a 10-seat House majority and they’re tied with Republicans in the Senate.
Hogan said the GOP may be at one of its lowest points but noted that Reagan reclaimed the White House for Republicans six years after President Richard Nixon resigned.
“Obviously, (Trump) still has got a lock on a pretty good chunk of the Republican base, but there are an awful lot of people that were afraid to speak out for four years — unlike me — who are now starting to speak out,” Hogan said.
Other possible 2024 GOP White House contenders, according to The Hill:
— Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was picked by Trump to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She served in the position for almost two years.
— U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. Sure to have a high profile in Trump’s second impeachment trial, Hawley has already objected to President Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. He has already said he’d support Trump in 2024 if Trump runs again, but he is seen as someone in the GOP who could assume the ex-president’s populist mantle.
— Former Vice President Mike Pence received bipartisan kudos for not following Trump’s heeds to challenge or overturn the election results Jan. 6, when the Capitol was attacked by violent, pro-Trump supporters. Pence loyally served by Trump’s side for four years and would instantly be seen as a legitimate candidate for the Oval Office in 2024.
— U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton is located firmly on the conservative wing of the party. During the final days of this year’s election campaign, The Associated Press noted Cotton’s expansive efforts to help GOP candidates in other states, including the early primary battlegrounds of Iowa and New Hampshire. “His schedule has all the hallmarks of someone focused on the White House in 2024,” the AP noted.
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