Donald Trump may have captured the Republican base to build an insurmountable lead in the 2024 presidential primary, but many GOP insiders are hoping there's still a chance to stop him from locking down the nomination.
Four primary challengers qualified for this week's GOP presidential debate, although the ex-president skipped this one like the others, but so far anti-Trump Republicans have not rallied around any of them as the top alternative – although that might not matter to voters, reported Politico.
“If virtually all the GOP governors and senators were to say they would not support Trump, even in the general, I don’t think his poll numbers would be harmed, at all,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). “They might even get better. I think the MAGA base dislikes our elected elites as much or more than they dislike Democrats.”
Romney, who is retiring when his current term expires, attended a Hoover Institution conference last week at Stanford University, and he was among many Republicans there who aren't certain that Trump is inevitable.
“Haley has a shot,” he said. “A long one.”
There's a model for Trump to lose, according to Politico's Jonathan Martin, if one of his challengers won New Hampshire or another early state similar to the way Joe Biden sewed up the Democratic nomination in 2020 by winning the South Carolina primary and vaulting past Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
"I think when these dominoes start to go — that’s why I’m still very much a believer that Trump very well could lose New Hampshire — because I do see how the dominoes go and when they go they go fast,” said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu.
However, the Republican Party is much more splintered in recent years than Democrats, and Trump's lieutenants front-loaded the primary calendar with winner-take-all states.
“There does seem to be a consolidation happening more naturally then even before,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “It’s kind of a two-person race for that second spot.”
If those early races are close, that might also provide an opening for another contender, Cox said, and then there's also the matter of Trump's criminal trials, which could be underway during the primary season.
“Are we really going to bring this race down and out before Super Tuesday, when the guy goes on trial,” said GOP candidate Chris Christie. “That’s why I’m sitting here saying: I’m in through the convention. It’s not that I’m delusional, it’s that nobody else is paying attention to what’s really happening.”
Republican leaders have largely backed Trump or remained silent for now, although many had hoped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or another challenger would have emerged, and some who would prefer another nominee think it may be too late to stop him.
“Just like in ‘16, all these guys came around too late,” said former Virginia congresswoman Barbara Comstock. “Like this should’ve been done six months ago. You didn’t know Trump was a threat? You didn’t know he was leading?”
