Jules Witcover, syndicated columnist
WASHINGTON — At last, a formidable party body, the Republican Governors Association, has decided to challenge former president Donald Trump’s de facto party leadership.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, its co-chairman, has announced a fund-raising plan to oppose Trump’s grip on the Grand Old Party.
The disgraced ex-president continues to traverse the country complaining that his defeat in the 2020 election by now-President Joe Biden was the illegal result of a nefarious plot. Meanwhile, Trump has endorsed various candidates in state primary elections and has threatened to mount his own comeback bid for the presidency in 2024.
Ducey has disclosed that at an Republican Governors Association meeting in Phoenix last November, members agreed to raise $5 million to oppose what they have called the “Trump vendetta tour” against fellow Republicans who have mounted primary challenges to Trump-endorsed candidates.
The governors’ rebellion against the Trump slate, which Ducey described to The Washington Post, may be the first such overt pushback in GOP ranks against Trump after more than five years of his dictatorial ways. It could mark a new Republican determination to break his firm grip on its rank and file membership.
Trump’s fixation on 2020, Ducey complains, has wasted too much time and money. Yet when asked by the Post whether he believed that Trump might be losing his firm grip on this party loyalists, Ducey said, “It hasn’t been to date.”
But it seems noteworthy to observe that after five years of having a firm grip on millions of party loyalists, some prominent Republican state governors would openly associate themselves with an effort to oppose his dictatorial ways as head of the party.
Another RGA co-chairman, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, has joined the internal party lament over Trump’s dictatorial ways and laments. He said of Trump’s vengeance tour, “This is just not the best use of our money. We would much rather use it just in races against Democrats.” He added, referring to Republican candidates who have fallen afoul of Trump, “… (W)e need to protect these folks who are the objects of his vengeance.”
Indeed, the Republican candidate who is arguably at the top of Trump’s enemies list, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, prevailed in the Republican primary on Tuesday. Kemp’s great sin, in Trump’s eyes, was having followed Georgia election law and certifying Biden’s victory in Georgia in 2020.
Also prevailing in the Georgia primary was Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who had pointedly refused Trump’s demand following the election that he “find” enough votes in the state to put him over the top.
While some of his handpicked candidates have prevailed in Republican primaries, Trump is now faced with overt resistance within his party as fear of his retribution wanes. It could signal sparks of life and decency in the slumbering party of Lincoln and Reagan.
Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at [email protected].
