New Hampshire's presidential primary is today, and the race for the Republican presidential nomination appears all but over unless former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley pulls off an upset victory over former president Donald Trump.
What the GOP’s most loyal voters want, it seems, is pure, uncut Trumpism—with all the baggage and ideological divergence from traditional conservatism that entails.
Between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s withdrawal and Haley’s having little apparent path forward barring a major upset, the race could well be effectively over by Wednesday, the party having passed up yet another opportunity to turn the page on a polarizing, multiply-indicted fabulist who lost the last election and has never won the popular vote.
It is an outcome that distresses those loyal to the party of Ronald Reagan who hoped 2024 would be the party’s opening to step into the future—people like New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, currently serving his fourth and final term.
He spent the last several weeks energetically promoting Haley’s candidacy and pronounced himself frustrated by Trump’s continued sway over the base.
“I’d like to move forward with someone that believes in Republican values and knows how to actually get it done,” Sununu said in an interview between rounds of hugs and selfies with his devoted constituents. “Donald Trump is not a conservative. He’s not a Republican. He’s co-opted the brand a little bit, and that’s why I’m trying to support Nikki, to bring it right back.”
Yet Iowa Republicans on Jan. 15 went for Trump by a 30-point margin, and the latest New Hampshire polls have Trump ahead of Haley by double-digit margins.
“The Republican Party we knew isn’t coming back,” the anti-Trump Republican Sarah Longwell wrote on X. “GOP voters don’t want it back. They don’t want limited government, free markets, and American leadership in the world. They want isolationism, an authoritarian crackpot president, and a big government that enforces their worldview.”
The Reaganites thought they could wait Trump out, that the fever would finally break and they could move to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. They didn’t bargain for the fact that he had no intention of ceding the throne.
It is a story that has unfolded over and over since Trump stepped onto the political stage in 2015, yet for traditional conservatives, it retains the power to sting.
There is still an old Republican guard that privately wishes Trump would go away, said Joe Walsh, a former Illinois Republican congressman. But it’s getting smaller and smaller as people like him and former Rep. Liz Cheney are cast out and a new guard takes over in its stead.
“The new ‘national conservatism’ is to use government to get what you want, to go after the libs and the media and your enemies,” Walsh said. “The free-market, traditional, Reagan conservatism, there’s no place for it in this party, or any other for that matter.”
Dedicated to the advancement of civil rights through quantitative social science. Principal at Blockwell Consulting, LLC
1moThis is so exciting, Aghogho. I love this for your and for the State of Michigan!