Massachusetts ex-governor marks first Republican to challenge Trump for 2020
William Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, said he will challenge US President Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2020, saying the country was in “grave peril,” media outlets reported on Friday.
His reported announcement marks the first time a Republican has jumped in to officially challenge Trump, who is seeking re-election after sweeping the Republican competition in 2016 to win the White House, Reuters reported.
In a speech in Bedford, New Hampshire, Weld criticized Trump for serving himself rather than the nation, for being too unstable to carry out his presidential duties, and for generating chaos.
“We have a president whose priorities are skewed toward promotion of himself rather than toward the good of the country,” Weld said in his remarks, according to the Boston Herald.
“The situation is not yet hopeless but we do need a midcourse correction,” he added, the Herald said.
Weld ran on the Libertarian Party’s presidential ticket in 2016 before returning to the Republican Party this year, according to the Washington Post, which also reported his announcement. The 73-year-old is a former prosecutor who led the New England state from 1991 to 1997, the Herald said.