The evolution of CPAC's speaker lineup is the story of the GOP

[DonViejo]

By Philip Bump
Feb. 26, 2021 at 2:45 p.m. EST

There’s former president Donald Trump, of course, followed by ACU head Matt Schlapp, who’s become a much-better-known name in the Trump era. Then Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R-S.D.) and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, both of whom are positioning themselves for possible 2024 presidential runs on the Make America Great Again ticket.

Compare that lineup with the way the page looked before the https://cpac.conservative.org/speakers/" target="_blank">2016 conference, as captured by the Internet Archive.

First on the list: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), then competing against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. He was long seen as a leading candidate among conservatives in that contest, but may simply have been first on the list because his last name is Cruz. Former corporate CEO Carly Fiorina, also seeking the nomination until a few weeks before the conference, came second. Then Trump.

Trump was followed by Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), former U.N. ambassador John Bolton and radio host Glenn Beck. Love was seen as a rising star in the GOP, a Black woman elected from Utah. But two years later she would lose her reelection bid — and be mocked by President Trump for not being sufficiently loyal to him. Bolton ran afoul of Trump even more dramatically, writing a tell-all book about his tumultuous tenure in the White House.

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https://fairpress.net/the-evolution-of-cpacs-speaker-lineup-is-the-story-of-the-gop/