2024 Republicans seek lane between Trump and DeSantis

Potential Republican presidential candidates face a dilemma: how to break into an area hitherto dominated by former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

For now, Trump is the only candidate to officially launch a campaign, although DeSantis is said to be close to making a final decision. And early polls show two Floridians easily top the 2024 contenders.

This dynamic poses a problem for a long list of other Republicans weighing in at the White House, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who need political support. an alleyway that will distinguish them from the leaders and also resonate with the base of the Republican Party.

“I think they are all looking for something,” said Keith Naughton, a veteran Republican strategist. “None of them have anything. None of these candidates seem to have a clear chance right now.”

It’s still extremely early in the process. The Iowa caucuses, the nation’s first nominating competition, are still more than a year away, and most potential candidates are still in the process of hiring consultants and discussing their prospects before making any formal decisions.

But the political posturing has already begun. AT Fox interview News on Thursday, Haley acknowledged that she is close to making a decision on the White House application, presenting herself as the face of “generational change” in the country’s politics. At 51, Haley is almost 26 years younger than Trump.

“It’s more than one person. And when you look at America’s future, I think it’s time for a new generation. I don’t think you have to be 80 to be a leader in DC,” Hayley told Fox News. “I think we need the younger generation to come in and step up and really start making things right.”

Hayley isn’t the only one trying to escape the White House. Pompeo, who was Trump’s secretary of state and director of the CIA, is set to tour to promote the new book, a move many see as laying the groundwork for a potential bid in 2024. Pompeo has been open about his ambitions, saying earlier that he will make a decision about the White House this spring.

And there is no shortage of potential candidates. Pence has been traveling the country for months, last visiting churches in what many Republicans see as an attempt to win over evangelical voters amid signs that Trump’s ties to a key conservative electorate may be waning.

Pence has also made it clear that a 2024 run is not out of the question, saying in an interview with The Hill last week that he will make a decision in the coming months on what his role in politics should be.

“I am sure that in the coming months we will make a decision on what role we can play, whether it is the national candidate or the voice of our conservative values,” he said.

In a sign of DeSantis’ growing status in the party, spokeswoman for South Dakota Gov. Christy Noem (R), another potential presidential candidate, earlier this month criticized the governor for failing to impose tighter restrictions on abortion in Florida. DeSantis signed a 15-week ban on the procedure last year, though he made it clear he’d like to go further.

“Looks like the proponents of life imprisonment don’t have a candidate. I think you have people – I think Pence and Noem – who want to be their nominees,” said one Republican strategist.

Then there are Trump’s critics, such as current former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who has been pushing for months into the 2024 campaign. He argues that the GOP’s disappointing performance in last year’s midterm elections should prompt the party to reconsider its ties to Trump, and positions itself as a Reagan alternative to the pompous former president.

But as it stands, any Republican who enters the race will have a lot to make up for if they hope to beat Trump or DeSantis. morning poll released this week showed Trump as the top front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, with 48 percent support to DeSantis’ 31 percent.

No other potential candidate included in this poll — Pence, Haley and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Vio.) among others — managed to garner double-digit support.

Similarly, a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll published exclusively for The Hill on Friday showed Trump leading DeSantis 48% to 28% in a hypothetical eight-way primary. Pence finished a distant third with just 7 percent support.

One swing state GOP strategist and operative warned that the playing field could change over the next year, noting that few Republicans would have named Trump as the primary leader when he filed his first bid for the White House in 2015.

Still, the strategist said that among the influential rank and file of the Republican Party, no one but Trump and DeSantis showed little interest.

“If you had told me in January 2015 that Donald Trump would nominate the Republican nomination, I would have thought you were crazy,” the strategist said. “But you don’t hear Pompeo from the grassroots. You don’t really hear Nikki Haley from the grassroots. Trump and DeSantis are big names that keep popping up.”

However, the matter is far from settled. Trump continues to face a long list of legal challenges and investigations, as well as questions about his political instincts, after several of his backed candidates were defeated in last year’s midterm elections. DeSantis, on the other hand, remains a relatively unknown figure on the national stage, making his political status at least somewhat tenuous.

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Mike Hartley, an Ohio-based Republican strategist, said it’s too early to get a good idea of ​​the 2024 primary field and which candidates will be able to cut through the noise. Ultimately, he said, Republican voters only care about one thing: who can beat President Biden.

“We’re so early,” Hartley said. “There will be many ebb and flow.”

“We are going to go through this process. They are going to come to the state and talk to voters,” he added. “But in the minds of Republican voters, the first question will be whether they can beat Joe Biden in November 2024.”

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