Donald Trump's Republican allies in the Senate are telegraphing a MAGA takeover of the last remaining vestige of the party's establishment wing.
Hours after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would not comment on the Republican presidential primary, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, one of McConnell's top deputies, went on Fox News to do exactly the opposite.
"If you want to get the country back on track, which is what I want to do … we need Donald Trump back in the White House," Barrasso told viewers. “And that's why, tonight, I am endorsing Donald Trump for president of the United States."
Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, became the 20th of 49 Republican senators to back Trump but only the second member of leadership to do it. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, chair of the Senate Republican campaign arm, endorsed Trump last year in an effort to ease the friction with Trump, whose 2022 candidate picks helped sink the party’s Senate takeover chances in last year's midterms.
But as a potential successor to McConnell, Barrasso's high-profile announcement stands in stark contrast to the neutrality of Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, McConnell's right-hand man and another potential heir to the throne.
“[E]verybody’s going to come to their own conclusion," Thune, the minority whip, told Politico Wednesday, adding that he plans to stay neutral in the primary.
But in Trumplandia, neutrality is traitorous. Accordingly, House Republican leaders have made clear they are all-in for Trump.
Not only has Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed Trump, but the No. 2 and No. 3 House GOP leaders, Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Tom Emmer of Minnesota, both made their support explicit last week despite the fact that he torpedoed their speaker bids mere months ago.
The Senate holdouts, by contrast, appear to represent the last stand by non-MAGA Republicans. “Republicans are giving up," Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told Politico of the race to endorse Trump—an observation that seemed more overarching than it was intended to be.
“There is room for an alternative to Trump versus Biden if we make that space, but we so pigeonhole ourselves into thinking that those are our two choices," Murkowski continued. "We’ve already done that before a single primary has happened," she added, questioning the point of even fielding a primary at all.
On the other side of the spectrum, Trump-critic-turned-convert Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio lobbied for more Trump love sooner in a comment with the whiff of a threat. “The biggest risk is that voters see them as disloyal to the party’s core message going in 2024,” Vance said of the fence-sitters. “That is a real risk. And that’s why I’ve encouraged a lot of folks to endorse the former president.”
Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, where caucus-goers will finally weigh in next Monday, is waiting to see which way the wind blows. “We’ll see,” Ernst said. “I just have to remain neutral through the caucuses. And then we want to see who the nominee is actually going to be."
If the nominee is Trump, as seems likely, his early endorsers will surely be in line to take a run at Senate Republicans' top leadership post. McConnell's last challenge came from Trump-backed Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, but the queue to replace McConnell with a MAGA Republican is growing—as is the likelihood that such an ouster could occur.
If McConnell was truly running the show, Thune would be the heir apparent. But Barrasso appears to be positioning himself as the conference’s most broadly acceptable pro-Trump alternative.
That would put the Senate Republican caucus—the last vestige of reality-based thinking in the Republican Party—firmly within Trump's grip. The state parties and apparatuses, the Republican National Committee, and House Republicans are already under his thumb.
Campaign Action
Trump is going to win Iowa, but what does that mean for Haley and DeSantis—and for whomever else is still (barely) in the running? Kerry and Markos talk about what to expect and what weird and wild stuff could happen this coming Monday.
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Hours after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would not comment on the Republican presidential primary, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, one of McConnell's top deputies, went on Fox News to do exactly the opposite.
"If you want to get the country back on track, which is what I want to do … we need Donald Trump back in the White House," Barrasso told viewers. “And that's why, tonight, I am endorsing Donald Trump for president of the United States."
Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, became the 20th of 49 Republican senators to back Trump but only the second member of leadership to do it. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, chair of the Senate Republican campaign arm, endorsed Trump last year in an effort to ease the friction with Trump, whose 2022 candidate picks helped sink the party’s Senate takeover chances in last year's midterms.
But as a potential successor to McConnell, Barrasso's high-profile announcement stands in stark contrast to the neutrality of Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, McConnell's right-hand man and another potential heir to the throne.
“[E]verybody’s going to come to their own conclusion," Thune, the minority whip, told Politico Wednesday, adding that he plans to stay neutral in the primary.
But in Trumplandia, neutrality is traitorous. Accordingly, House Republican leaders have made clear they are all-in for Trump.
Not only has Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed Trump, but the No. 2 and No. 3 House GOP leaders, Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Tom Emmer of Minnesota, both made their support explicit last week despite the fact that he torpedoed their speaker bids mere months ago.
The Senate holdouts, by contrast, appear to represent the last stand by non-MAGA Republicans. “Republicans are giving up," Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told Politico of the race to endorse Trump—an observation that seemed more overarching than it was intended to be.
“There is room for an alternative to Trump versus Biden if we make that space, but we so pigeonhole ourselves into thinking that those are our two choices," Murkowski continued. "We’ve already done that before a single primary has happened," she added, questioning the point of even fielding a primary at all.
On the other side of the spectrum, Trump-critic-turned-convert Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio lobbied for more Trump love sooner in a comment with the whiff of a threat. “The biggest risk is that voters see them as disloyal to the party’s core message going in 2024,” Vance said of the fence-sitters. “That is a real risk. And that’s why I’ve encouraged a lot of folks to endorse the former president.”
Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, where caucus-goers will finally weigh in next Monday, is waiting to see which way the wind blows. “We’ll see,” Ernst said. “I just have to remain neutral through the caucuses. And then we want to see who the nominee is actually going to be."
If the nominee is Trump, as seems likely, his early endorsers will surely be in line to take a run at Senate Republicans' top leadership post. McConnell's last challenge came from Trump-backed Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, but the queue to replace McConnell with a MAGA Republican is growing—as is the likelihood that such an ouster could occur.
If McConnell was truly running the show, Thune would be the heir apparent. But Barrasso appears to be positioning himself as the conference’s most broadly acceptable pro-Trump alternative.
That would put the Senate Republican caucus—the last vestige of reality-based thinking in the Republican Party—firmly within Trump's grip. The state parties and apparatuses, the Republican National Committee, and House Republicans are already under his thumb.
Campaign Action
Trump is going to win Iowa, but what does that mean for Haley and DeSantis—and for whomever else is still (barely) in the running? Kerry and Markos talk about what to expect and what weird and wild stuff could happen this coming Monday.
Embedded Content