The press can’t lend a hand but predict that President Trump’s influence over the Republican Party is waning; They have been incorrectly predicting this since 2015. No one in the establishment took Trump’s candidacy seriously at the time, and even after defeating a dozen impressive Republican rivals, they announced they were toasting Hillary Clinton. You know the rest of the story. Now that political pundits and the media are predicting its demise before the 2024 elections, will they be proven wrong once again? If Trump’s political history is our guide, this seems very likely.
Fast forward to the present and you’ll see reporters and pundits saying the Republican political establishment is sharpening its knives and trying to throw Trump under the bus. This is simply not true. Every time Donald Trump was on the ballot, Republicans either held the majority (2016) or won seats (2020). The same people who want to blame him for losing the Senate in 2022 have been suffering from amnesia since 2018, when President Trump was in the White House and Republican senators won seats in the midterm elections. Funny how convenient it is to leave this out of the discussion. Even New York Times is forced to admit that President Trump’s support record is impressive – 82 percent of the candidates he supports won their races. Moreover, Trump continues to enjoy high support among Republican Party voters defeat Ron DeSantis poll after poll and he fits strongly against Joe Biden in 2024
Interestingly, the media did not report on Obama’s waning influence in the Democratic Party after his party lost House and Senate seats during his presidency, including Obama-backed candidates in key swing states in 2016 who lost: Patrick Murphy in Florida , Ted Strickland in Ohio, Patty Judge in Iowa, Deborah Ross in North Carolina, Russ Feingold in Wisconsin and Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania. Compare that to President Trump’s support in the key swing states of this election: J.D. Vance won Ohio, Ted Budd won North Carolina, Marco Rubio won Florida, and Chuck Grassley won Iowa. Yes, there were losses in other states such as New Hampshire, Nevada and Georgia. But overall, Trump had very good support in the House and Senate. Another underrated factor is Trump’s influence on Republican leadership races; He approved two candidates, Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House and Elise Stefanik for Chair of the House Republican Conference. They both won their leadership races. Speaker McCarthy assigned President Trump for helping to persuade his opponents to secure votes for the Speaker.
As the 2024 presidential race heats up, it is critical to note that, as of this writing, Donald Trump is the only candidate from the Republican Party. He raises millions of dollars and remains the most powerful force in the party. Every poll shows that his remaining potential rivals, such as Mike Pence, Liz Cheney, Larry Hogan, Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, have no chance against Trump. His most expected challenge is Ron DeSantis, although a recent poll shows Trump tops Florida governor by 20 points and would defeat Joe Biden in the general election. The most critical concerns facing our country today: inflation, the economy, crime and the border are issues that President Trump has forcefully brought to the American people. As more voters To continue be furious at Joe Biden, including his political policies partywait for President Trump’s popularity to rise in the polls. If President Trump focuses on the most critical issues, he will be able to defeat Joe Biden in 2024.
Political pundits were wrong about Trump in 2015 and they are wrong now. The 45th president remains a powerful force in the Republican Party, the presumptive nominee in 2024, and if history is our guide, he has a very good chance of becoming president again.
Garrett Ventry is a Republican political and communications consultant. He is the former chief of staff to Senator Ken Buck and senior communications advisor to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
