Conservative groups look beyond Trump
NEW YORK — Two major conservative groups have signaled they are open to supporting someone other than Donald Trump in the 2024 race for the White House, the latest sign from an increasingly vocal segment of the Republican Party that it’s time to move on from the former president.
David McIntosh, the president of the influential Club For Growth group, said Tuesday that the group has invited a half dozen potential Republican candidates to its donor summit in Florida next month, but Trump — the only declared major candidate in the race so far — is not among them.
Instead, the group has invited Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is viewed as Trump’s most formidable likely challenger, along with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador; former vice president Mike Pence; former secretary of state Mike Pompeo; Senator Tim
Scott of South Carolina; and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
“We think it would be great for our members to hear them, see what they have to say, where they want to lead the country,” McIntosh said in an interview.
His comments follow a memo released over the weekend by the conservative advocacy group Americans For Prosperity that said the group was prepared to support someone other than Trump.
Tensions between Trump and both groups are not new, but their willingness to get involved on behalf of another candidate may only encourage at least half a dozen potential rivals who are considering campaigns. Haley is expected to announce her 2024 campaign next week in South Carolina.
Both groups join several megadonors who have signaled in recent months that they’re looking elsewhere for a presidential nominee.
Trump is facing a swirl of legal problems and has been blamed for the GOP’s underwhelming performance in last year’s midterm elections. However, he remains the most dominant figure in the party and has a been a prolific fund-raiser.
Asked for comment Tuesday, Trump’s campaign pointed to messages on his Truth Social network in which he called McIntosh’s organization the “Club For NO Growth.” He later posted an additional message Tuesday calling the group “an assemblage of political misfits, globalists, and losers.”
Club For Growth, an antitax group, opposed Trump during his 2016 campaign but became a big ally once he won the White House. But the group has been at odds with Trump over the last year after it endorsed opposing candidates in Republican primaries, especially in the Ohio and Pennsylvania Senate races.
Americans For Prosperity, founded by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, has long clashed with Trump. Their substantial network refused to endorse him or any candidate in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
Trump in the past has lashed out at the brothers, calling them a “total joke” and “globalists” who are “against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade.”
In the new memo, the group said, “The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter.” It said the political advocacy arm of AFP is prepared to support a candidate in the GOP primary “who can lead our country forward, and who can win” — with an added emphasis on “win.”