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The announcement by Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri of his retirement next year opens the door for former President Donald Trump to strengthen his grip on the GOP.
Blunt becomes the fifth Republican senator to decide not to stand for re-election in 2022, as the GOP tries to win back the Senate majority it just lost in the 2020 election cycle.
The senses. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio and Richard Shelby of Alabama have also announced in the past two months that they will not be running re-election campaigns. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina said upon re-election in 2016 that he would not run again in 2022. Another old Senate bull – 87-year-old Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa – plans to retire.
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Mike Biundo, longtime Republican consultant and veteran of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, told Fox News that the retirements “certainly allow” the former president to potentially increase his influence over the GOP.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sunday, February 28, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo / John Raoux)
((AP Photo / John Raoux))
Trump may have left the White House, but he still casts a big shadow over the party he reshaped and led in his four years as president. Trump’s influence over Republicans in Congress remains formidable, as his poll numbers among GOP voters remain astronomical. Trump has pledged to support the main challengers of Republicans vying for re-election in 2022 who voted to impeach or convict him or other GOP members who have crossed paths with him, and he is flirting with a 2024 Republican presidential candidacy to try to return to the white house
Another veteran GOP strategist noted that retirements “certainly open the door for a new generation of Republican candidates.”
“Do you have people like the senses. Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton, who embrace Trump’s principles but are ultimately seen as credible lawmakers, or do you end up with people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is running for a reality show?” asked the strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely. “I think this will be one of the most interesting developments of this cycle.”
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The trend seems to be most evident in Ohio, where the Republican scramble is set to take over from Portman in a state Trump won by eight points in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. The two main Republican candidates have already stood. runner up – former State GOP Chair Jane Timken and former state treasurer and former Senate candidate Josh Mandel – have both lent their support to Trump’s centerpieces of their campaigns.
“As a senator, I would move Trump’s agenda forward without fear or hesitation,” Timken stressed when announcing his candidacy. And Mandel pointed out that “I am going to Washington to fight for President Trump’s America First program” as he rushes into the race.
Another big Trump supporter, Ohio businessman and 2018 Senate candidate Mike Gibbons looks set to launch a campaign in the coming weeks. And Rep. Warren Davidson, a far-right House Freedom Caucus member, is considering an offer.
In Alabama, where the 2020 GOP primary rather than the general election was the main competition to decide who would be the next state senator, Trump’s endorsement was crucial in helping former college football coach Tommy Tuberville defeat former US Attorney General and former Senator Jeff Sessions – who had clashed with the then President.
Representative Mo Brooks, a staunch ally of the former president, is considering an election to the Senate. And Lynda Blanchard, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia for the last two years of the Trump administration, has already launched a campaign.
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“We will give the swamp a dose of common sense and conservative principle it needs to really ‘make America great again’ – just like President Trump has done,” she pledged in announcing her application.
In Missouri, former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens – who resigned amid several scandals in 2018 – was throwing a Trump-style main challenge against Blunt ahead of the senator’s retirement announcement. And Rep. Jason Smith, a major Trump supporter, is being put forward as a potential candidate.
The Senate is currently split 50-50 between the two parties, but Democrats hold a razor-thin majority, due to the decisive vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is Senate Speaker. This means that the GOP only needs a one-seat pickup to win back the majority. But Republicans are defending 20 of the 34 seats up for grabs in 2022. And the growing number of GOP Senate retirements means more Republican primaries over the next year and a half.
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Biundo noted that “an overwhelming majority of Republicans who show up at these offices will chant a similar message. There is no one I see stepping up who is going to be anti-Trump because there is no way. for that at the moment. You may have disagreements. with Donald Trump but you may not be seen as an anti-Trump candidate. “
But Biundo has warned that he thinks the former president “has to be very careful and very smart about where he makes his approvals.”
And he suggested that “if they came up with some kind of political agenda that everyone who got Trump’s approval had to adhere to, Trump would have all of those candidates sign the same songbook and that would be his songbook, and that’s even bigger. win for him. “
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