Crowd of Trump rivals stirs fears of party division
LAS VEGAS — Memories of the tumultuous 2016 Republican primary hung over the Las Vegas ballroom this weekend during the first major gathering of the party’s potential contenders for the 2024 nomination.
No fewer than 10 White House prospects stepped onto the stage to pitch their plans to fix the nation — and their party. The details varied, but within most speeches was an extraordinary sense of defiance rarely seen since former President Donald Trump seized control of the Republican Party six years ago.
Their central message: Trump can and should be beaten.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, pledged in April that she wouldn’t challenge the former president if he ran again. But Saturday night, facing hundreds of cheering Republicans, she pledged to give “1,000%” to a White House bid if she decided to get in.
“I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not going to start now,” she said as the crowd roared.
But as the donors and activists who gathered for the Republican Jewish Coalition’s two-day leadership conference applauded, perhaps no one was cheering louder than Trump himself from his Florida estate.
Trump’s team believes, as do a growing number of anxious donors and Republican operatives, that the GOP’s emboldened 2024 class may already be unintentionally re-creating the conditions that enabled Trump’s success in 2016. That year, a crowded Republican field splintered the primary electorate and allowed Trump to become the party’s presidential nominee despite winning just 35% or less of the vote in each of the three opening primary contests.
In the earliest days of the 2024 season, the 2016 parallels are eerie. As then, Trump is viewed with suspicion within his party, his standing weakened considerably after several loyalists lost winnable races in this month’s midterm elections. And most of all, a parade of ambitious Republicans is lining up to take him on.
A small but growing group of Republican operatives is warning Trump’s critics that the only way to defeat him is to rally behind a much smaller group of alternatives.
Eric Levine, a donor based in New York who attended the weekend gathering, called on his party to embrace no more than two or three candidates — and to move with urgency.
“I don’t think we have the luxury of waiting,” said Levine, who has raised millions of dollars for Republicans in recent years. “If he becomes the Republican brand, the party is going to be destroyed.”
For now, at least, Trump’s rivals don’t appear to be heeding his warning. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said it’s much too early to worry about winnowing the field.
“I think more voices, more potential choices,” said Hogan, who is openly weighing a 2024 bid after his term ends in January. “Trump needs to be tested. People need to go out there and be willing to stand up to him.”