Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz declared Monday that Donald Trump is "not gonna be the nominee." Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the prospect of a Trump presidency was "scary." And powerful GOP groups have for months rumbled about launching a back-breaking anti-Trump assault.
Yet the billionaire developer continues to confound his Republican rivals — and frustrate the upper reaches of the GOP’s establishment — with his stubborn support in nationwide polls and surveys of the early-voting states.
And he still attracts bigger crowds than other contenders, a magnetic appeal on display again Monday when more than 6,000 people crammed into the Macon Coliseum to hear him speak.
“We’re winning in every single category. We’re winning in every single poll,” Trump said to deafening applause. “We’re beating Hillary Clinton head-to head,” he added of the Democratic front-runner.
The first votes of the campaign season, the vaunted Iowa caucuses, are about 10 weeks away. The SEC primary, the March 1 regional vote that includes Georgia and a slew of other Southern states, will be held in three months.
And Trump, despite the predictions of many analysts and officeholders, remains the unquestioned front-runner.
Retired surgeon Ben Carson, who briefly surged to Trumpian levels, has leveled off after a series of foreign policy missteps. Bush, once seen as the establishment favorite, remains in the low single digits in most polls and awaiting an elusive breakout moment.
Cruz and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio have gained traction in recent weeks, partly thanks to Carson’s fall, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has camped out in New Hampshire in hopes of winning a more moderate strain of Republican voter.
The Dec. 15 debate in Las Vegas, right before the holiday campaigning lull, could be the site of a last-ditch effort by some of Trump’s struggling rivals — including Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — to try to change the dynamic.
But through it all, Trump’s primacy in the polls has remained a constant. And his enduring popularity comes despite — or perhaps because of — fire-breathing rhetoric that would have sunk even the most resilient candidates in past primaries.
In the past few weeks alone, he suggested that a Black Lives Matter protester who was kicked and punched at a Trump rally in Alabama may have "deserved" it, falsely claimed that Muslims in Jersey City, N.J., cheered the Sept. 11 terror attacks and appeared to mock the disability of a New York Times reporter.
“He’s just so far outside the norm. He’s not your everyday candidate. He goes off the talking points. He’s not politically correct,” said Rich Vargas, who drove in from Savannah for the event, ticking off the reasons he is drawn to Trump.
“It’s so refreshing to have someone different and new to stir the pot,” Vargas said.
Some pundits and political scientists who once laughed off the prospect of a Trump campaign now acknowledge that they see a growing likelihood that Trump will emerge as the GOP nominee. Emory University's Alan Abramowitz said he expects the billionaire to carry Georgia.
“If none of the totally crazy things he’s said up until now have hurt him among Republican voters,” Abramowitz said, “why would any crazy things he says in the next few months hurt him?”
Much of the race has been driven by restless Republicans who feel betrayed by their party and are eager for a political newcomer to take Washington by storm. Herman Cain tried to ride the same wave in 2012, but he said the insider-versus-outsider storyline only goes so far.
“Let me tell you something about my definition of an outsider: If you were born in the United States of America, you are an insider,” said the News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB host, who opened for Trump. “There are no outsiders.”
Trump signaled Monday that his attacks will only get sharper as the target on his back gets bigger. A slew of radio ads, he said, are in the works. And he vowed to keep up his say-anything debate performances.
“If somebody hits me, I’m going to hit them so hard. We’re going to hit them 10 times harder,” he said. “There’s only one way to get to the top, and it’s all through Trump. Let’s face it.”
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