GOP hopefuls crank up the 'if-Trump-doesn't-run' primary

[DonViejo]

For potential candidates, there is little choice but to prepare as though they are running and Trump isn’t — and then watch it all evaporate if he does.

By DAVID SIDERS

03/22/2021 04:30 AM EDT

Mike Pompeo and Rick Scott are headed to Iowa this week and next, followed by Tim Scott in mid-April. Mike Pence plans to visit the early primary state of South Carolina, while Ron DeSantis appears to be conducting a soft launch in his home state of Florida.

Jeff Kaufmann, chair of the Iowa Republican Party, said he’s never seen so much interest so early in a presidential election cycle. “Iowa’s going to be hopping,” Kaufmann said.

But what’s truly unique about the Republicans’ pre-presidential primary is the contingent framework that is unfolding around it. It’s a primary — but a wholly conditional one. Prospective 2024 candidates, donors and conservative media outlets — the entire Republican ecosystem — are building strategies and structuring the race around the single question of whether former President Donald Trump runs again.

It’s been nearly a half-century since either party had to navigate a primary in which a losing president loomed as a potential contestant.

more
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/22/2024-election-trump-477353

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. That's their A-team sniffing around?

I almost feel sorry for them.

[lagomorph777]

3. There is no A-Team.

All they have left is the Q-Team.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. +1

Well played.

[keithbvadu2]

8. Agreed!

[HUAJIAO]

2. What a bunch of sickos.

Just look at that list -- Mike Pompeo, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis ,maybe Chris Christie....

compared to some of the Dems 2020 candidates.. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Globuchar, Elizabeth Warren.........

[uponit7771]

4. All of them are scum buckets most should be in jail in some way and still love Putin's Whore but

... for some damn reason they'll be allowed to run by the M$M.

[Thunderbeast]

5. WHAT! Ron Johnson and MT Greene aren't in the mix?

....yet.

[bullwinkle428]

6. How much extra security will be surrounding Pence as he goes out and about,

amongst the rubes?