The poor showing of Trump-backed candidates in Tuesday’s midterm elections is leading senior Republicans to question whether it’s the right time for him to announce his 2024 presidential bid.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a friend turned vocal critic of the former president, didn’t mince his words when it came to the Republican underperformance Tuesday night.
“We lost in ‘18. We lost in ’20. We lost in ’21 in Georgia. And now in ’22 we’re going to net lose governorships, we’re not going to pick up the number of seats in the House that we thought and we may not win the Senate despite a president who has a 40% job approval…There’s only one person to blame for that and that’s Donald Trump,” Christie told the Associated Press.
The poor Republican showing, particularly amongst the former president’s handpicked Senate candidates in battleground states, has cast a shadow over Trump’s forthcoming announcement that he is planning to run for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024. Trump hinted that he’d be announcing the run on November 15 at a rally in Ohio held on the eve of Election Day.
Trump’s team, however, has tried to turn a defeat into a victory by pointing to candidates such as Ohio’s J.D. Vance as proof that the former president still holds electoral sway.
“Of course, he’s going to claim victory, right? The president touts an accomplishment record that includes victories in uncontested races. He can say whatever he wants. But how do people feel in America? I think people feel not great about the Trump brand right now,” Republican strategist and former Trump adviser David Urban told the AP.
Over the coming month, Trump could also find himself preoccupied with Georgia’s runoff senate race pitting his endorsed candidate, Herschel Walker, against the Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock.
Georgians will be returning to the polls on December 6 to cast their votes again in a race that may decide the balance of power in the Senate.
“I’ll be advising him that he move his announcement until after the Georgia runoff…Georgia needs to be the focus of every Republican in the country right now,” former Trump adviser Jason Miller said.
Don Bolduc, a one-time Trump endorsee who was snubbed by the former president following his failed Senate race Tuesday night, thinks he shouldn’t even be considering the announcement.
“It’s a terrible idea…I don’t know who is advising the former president to make an announcement next week. They should be fired,” Bolduc said on Fox News Wednesday.