Two conservative groups no longer keen on 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 a 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 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 Gov. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador; former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Haley is expected to announce her 2024 campaign next week in South Carolina.

“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 came on the heels of 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 in the GOP primary.

Americans For Prosperity and Club for Growth join several megadonors who have signaled recently that they’re looking elsewhere for a presidential nominee. However, Trump remains the most dominant figure in the party and has a been a prolific fundraiser.

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.”

McIntosh said Club For Growth, an anti-tax group, is open to supporting a candidate in the Republican presidential primary, potentially running ads on their behalf. But he made clear that the group would support Trump in the general election if he became the nominee.

“One of the factors that we’re taking into account is that the Democrats successfully used him in the last election to win a lot of races,” he said. “We want to make sure whoever we nominate can win in the presidential race.”

Americans For Prosperity is a substantial network founded by the billionaire Koch brothers.

Trump has lashed out at the brothers, calling them “globalists” who are “against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade.”

In the new memo, the group said its political advocacy arm is prepared to support a candidate in the GOP primary “who can lead our country forward, and who can win.”

A spokesperson for the group did not offer any further details about the process, including when the organization might make a decision on whom to endorse and which candidates might win the group’s backing.

The pro-business, free-market group spent almost $80 million in the 2022 midterms on behalf of House and Senate candidates, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Once more candidates enter the race in the coming months, it is expected to go through a comprehensive vetting process based first on each candidate’s policy positions.

The organization has long refused to endorse Trump because he wasn’t viewed as sufficiently conservative on trade and federal spending, among other issues. But it will also prioritize viability as a key factor in the endorsement process.

By doing so, Americans For Prosperity could help narrow the Republican field in 2024 by starving lower-tier contenders of funding and attention.