#NeverTrump Has a Hail Mary Plan to Block Trump: Romney, Perry, Walker, Russell, Eastwood

[Miles Archer]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/never-trump-liz-mair-independent-candidate

Republican strategist Liz Mair, who has become one of the public faces of the anti-Trump crowd, tells Mother Jones that she's been having conversations with other leading conservatives opposed to Trump about a variety of backup options since Trump's last remaining rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, dropped out of the race last week. One option, should they fail to recruit a viable candidate to run nationwide, is to get conservative candidates to run independent, single-state bids in as many states as possible.

Mair declined to specify which anti-Trump conservatives were most inclined toward this plan, but she mentioned several potential candidates. While Romney seems unlikely to launch a nationwide presidential bid, perhaps conservatives could convince him to put his name on the ballot in Utah, where he's popular due to his family roots there and his Mormon faith. Or Scott Walker could run just in Wisconsin, Mair suggests, or Rick Perry in Texas (although Perry endorsed Trump last week). Even non-politicians, she believes, would be better than Trump. "If we're going to be in the era of celebrities, we could get Clint Eastwood or Kurt Russell," Mair says.

If these one-off candidates could pick off a few key swing states, that might be enough to deny both Trump and the Democratic candidate (likely Hillary Clinton) an Electoral College majority. In that case, the president would be selected by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which presumably would be more inclined to hand the job to a traditional Republican than face four years of working with Trump.

The odds are not in favor of that outcome—not to mention the popular upheaval that might follow if this kind of scenario came to pass. But the strategy could accomplish a more modest goal. A popular name at the top of the ballot in certain states could give anti-Trump Republicans who were thinking of sitting out the election a reason to go to the polls and vote for other Republicans on the ballot. "The main logic behind that, from what I can glean," Mair says, "is that people are really worried about down-ballot in that situation."

[underpants]

1. Jesus, that's scary

[whatthehey]

3. Only in the scary stupid sense

They really think splitting the Republican vote will reduce Clinton's EV total? How? Sure Romney could probably take UT, but all that does is reduce Trump's EV count not Clinton's. Walker take WI as a sacrificial lamb spoiler, with another angry white man Repoublican in the race as the official nom? Not a single chance. All that does is split the RWNJ vote and increase the Dem margin of victory.

I mean please Varuna Zeus and Koresh let them do this, please. But from their POV? Only makes sense as a distancing move from the Trump debacle and a public handwashing. OK for 2016 sure, but that though just pisses off millions of their core angry white male demographic.

[underpants]

7. That's true

They think California is going to waste their votes on Eastwood or Russell? But hey, these Republicans clearly have a lot of time to sit around and convince themselves of things like this.

[hamsterjill]

2. Where's Chuck Norris, when they need him?

Seriously, this is being bantered about by a lot of Republicans that are upset with Trump winning the nomination. I take nothing for granted where Republicans are concerned. They lie. They cheat. They steal elections.

[pinboy3niner]

4. Eastwood/Chair 2016!

[whatthehey]

5. They can fuck themselves...

[underpants]

6. What about Taco Bowl?