Fear of Clinton pushes GOP voters to Trump

They once said “never,” but Republicans learn to deal with Donald

washington» Donald Trump’s best ally in winning over skeptical Republicans is turning out to be Hillary Clinton.

Having overcome a multimillion-dollar “Never Trump” campaign aimed at blocking him from the Republican nomination, he’s now benefiting from a wave of GOP donors, party leaders, voters and conservative groups that are uniting under a new banner: “Never Hillary.”

“Nothing unites Republicans better than a Clinton,” says Scott Reed, a political strat- egist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who has advised previous GOP campaigns. While Reed says there remain “many unknowns” about Trump, he adds that “the knowns about Hillary are very powerful motivators to Republicans.”

Thanks to Republicans’ deep disdain for the likely Democratic nominee, Trump is piling up those kinds of lukewarm GOP endorsements. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who called Trump a dangerous “con artist” during his own failed presidential campaign, now says he’s willing to get involved in the general election to stop Clinton.

“If you can live with a Clinton presidency for 4 years, that’s your right,” Rubio wrote Friday on Twitter. “I can’t and will do what I can to prevent it.”

Later in the day he reiterated on Twitter that his assistance should not be viewed as pro-Trump. “I said I would be ‘honored’ to help party beat Hillary,” he wrote.

“Never Hillary” graced the subject line of a new Republican National Committee fundraising e-mail that had nary a mention of Trump. And Super PACs advised by Trump-skeptic Karl Rove are using the hashtag “NeverHillary” on Twitter.