Could a GOP Primary Challenge Actually HELP Trump in 2020?

The list of hungry Democratic candidates vying for a chance to unseat President Donald J. Trump is growing by the day. Typically, incumbent presidents don’t have to worry about a primary challenge from anyone in their own party. But, where Trump is concerned, all bets are off. Recently, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who faced off against Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, proclaimed a Republican should challenge the President in 2020.

During an interview with David Axelrod on CNN’s “The Axe Files,” Bush said that a Republican challenger would provide conservatives and Republicans with “a choice.” He stated, “I think someone should run just because Republicans ought to be given a choice. It’s hard to beat a sitting president, but to have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative, I think it’s important.”

“And our country needs to have competing ideologies that people — that are dynamic, that focus on the world we’re in and the world we’re moving towards rather than revert back to a nostalgic time,” the former Florida governor added.

Bush made his remarks while he and Axelrod were discussing Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. According to TheBlaze, Hogan hinted about running in February. At the time, the Maryland Governor told CNN, “People are talking to me about it. I’m flattered people are saying that and including me in those discussions. My focus, my plan right now is to stay here for four years and do the best job I can in Maryland, but I’ve said, ‘You never say never.’ Who knows what’s going to happen.”

While no Republican has committed to challenging Trump yet, another Trump competitor in the 2016 race, former Ohio Governor John Kasich, is allegedly thinking about mounting an independent challenge.

History hasn’t been kind to incumbent presidents who have faced primary challenges. The late Senator Edward Kennedy challenged former President Jimmy Carter during the 1980 campaign. Carter was handily defeated by the late former President Ronald Reagan in the general contest. In 1992, populist Pat Buchanan challenged the late former President George H. W. Bush. While Bush easily secured the GOP nomination, he lost to former President Bill Clinton in the general election. You better believe Democrats and those in the Never Trump movement are keenly aware of these statistics. This is why they’re practically salivating for someone to run against Trump in the primary.

But, Trump is a political anomaly. Christopher R. Barron of American Greatness said, “If Trump proved anything in 2016, it’s that you can throw historical precedent, conventional wisdom, and broadly accepted rules out the window.” Rather than harming Trump’s political chances in 2020, a primary challenge might actually help him.

A primary challenge would keep Trump in the media spotlight while the Democratic candidates are facing off against each other in their primary. And, everyone knows how Trump thrives off of media attention. Like it or not, liberal media outlets would have to give some attention to Trump and his challenger rather than solely fawn over the likes of Democratic candidates like Senator Cory Booker, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Beto, O’Rourke.

If someone squares off against Trump in the primary, he would also get to the opportunity to hone his debating skills. Unlike career politicians, Trump’s first political debate experience came when he ran for president in 2016.

Barron said a primary fight “would also give Trump a definable foil.”

“The media and NeverTrumpers harp on what they dislike about Trump—his Twitter feed, his disdain for tradition and protocol, his unpredictability, and his penchant for punching back hard,” he wrote. “A primary challenger would remind voters that while they may not like everything about how Trump ‘behaves,’ the alternative would be a return to the corrupt and disastrous D.C. insider policies that gave us endless unwinnable wars, porous borders, a hollowed-out middle class, and an economy that works only for a sliver of Americans.”

~ Liberty Planet


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