Huntsman says he’s being urged to consider a run
Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, said he’s getting “a lot” of encouragement to launch another White House bid from Republicans concerned about the prospect of Donald Trump as the 2016 GOP nominee.
This time, to run as an independent.
“I always want to help my country where I can, but you don’t want to embark on a suicide mission,” he told Capital Download. “I’m not ready for a thirdparty run until we have a complete collapse of the Republican Party that I can still believe in.”
That said, unease about Trump and fractures over the GOP’s direction are a warning sign for the party, he said.
A split in Republican ranks that prompted any significant third-party candidate almost certainly would rebound to the benefit of the Democratic nominee.
Huntsman, 55, is co-chair with former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman of No Labels, a non-profit advocacy group that seeks bipartisan cooperation on big issues. The presidential bid by the former two-term governor never gained traction in 2012.
“People really are hungry for change,” he said on USA TODAY’s weekly video newsmaker series. “They were last time, but it hadn’t reached the 212-degree boiling point. This time it has. That’s why I think Donald Trump — despite sometimes the overthe-top rhetoric that would have done in any other candidate in earlier election cycles — probably has some real legs.”
Huntsman called Trump the favorite to win the nomination: “Once you capture that winning narrative after three or four or a half-dozen wins, then you’re off. And there’s very little that can stop what I refer to as the physics of politics, that momentum.”
Though he said Trump could well win the nomination, Huntsman isn’t convinced the businessman could carry a general election. He called Trump’s rhetoric “white-hot and really playing on the emotions of fear.”
“If he’s able to transform that into being a problem-solver ... then who knows?” he said.
Huntsman didn’t sound certain about whom he would support in a contest between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I’ll have to wait and see where Donald Trump finds himself as he gets toward the general election if in fact he wins the nomination,” he said. So he’s undecided? “Well, I’ll vote the Republican. It’s too early to see who’s going to win the nomination.”
Huntsman left the door open to another presidential campaign for himself down the road: “Health and family permitting, at some point that may be something that we’ll take a look at.”