Trump, with streak of 2022 mentions, goes where no former president has gone before

Former President Trump’s approval is by far the most sought after in the Republican Party, and Trump is not disappointing.

The former president – eight months away from the White House – remains hugely popular and influential with Republican voters and politicians as he aims to continue playing the kingmaker role within the GOP.

And while Trump repeatedly flirts with another White House candidate in 2024, thanks to a string of recent endorsements, he has now backed nearly 40 Republicans running for office this year, and next year races. statewide such as senator and governor in ballot contests.

ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST COMBUSTIBLE GOP 2022 SENATE PRIMARIES IS STILL ENLARGING

It is unexplored for a former president to remain so immensely involved in party politics. But Trump is not a normal former president.

“Once again, former President Trump turns out to be walking to the beat of his own drums,” veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance said. The New England College vice president of academic affairs said the number of mentions of Trump so far this year was “unheard of in recent political memory.”

The former president’s political backers come as the GOP aims to win back majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in the 2022 midterm election. Sometimes Trump’s endorsements are in line with Republican leaders in the country. Congress, and sometimes they diverge. And often, they’re bestowed on Republicans who back his repeated baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. Among them are candidates for secretary of state from Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, three states Trump narrowly lost to current President Biden last year.

Whatever the circumstances, Trump’s support has incredible influence within the GOP.

“President Trump’s support is the most powerful and sought-after support in the history of US politics,” Taylor Budowich, communications director for former President PAC, told Fox News. “He will continue to identify and support strong candidates who will champion his America First agenda in Congress and in state chambers across the country.”

TRUMP 2024 FLIRT DOES NOT STOP OTHER REPUBLICS FROM VISITING KEY STATES

A key battlefield state where the former president weighed in on major ballot contests next year is Georgia, where Trump is hosting a rally on Saturday.

Two months after Biden passed Trump by a razor-thin margin in Georgia, Democrats swept the two state Senate second-round contests, giving them a majority in the chamber.

For months, Trump has vowed to return to Georgia, to target the state’s top Republicans – Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – to politically punish them for refusing to ‘help the president’s efforts to overturn the election results in Peach State.

Trump has backed Representative Jody Hice in her main challenge against Raffensperger and he is backing State Senator Burt Jones in the race to succeed Duncan, who has decided not to run for re-election next year. While Trump has yet to support any major challenges against Kemp, he has vowed to return to Georgia to campaign against the governor.

Hice and Jones will speak at Saturday’s rally, along with former professional and college football star Herschel Walker, who, after repeated exhortations from the former president, launched a bid in the Republican Senate to challenge Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock next year.

HERSCHEL WALKER, FOLLOWING THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF TRUMP, LAUNCHES THE CANDIDATE FOR THE SENATE IN GEORGIA

Some advisers in the orbit of Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell initially had doubts about the former president’s approval of Walker – a Trump ally with a strong identity in Georgia, but a candidate for the first time that has not been tested and that comes with baggage that could be used by its opponents, jeopardizing the GOP’s chances of flipping a crucial blue Senate seat to red.

Trump’s challengers have already endorsed four of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach him earlier this year for the then president’s role in inciting the Jan.6 insurgency on the State Capitol -United by right-wing extremists to disrupt congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory.

And Trump backs former Alaskan Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka, who challenges longtime Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the only one of seven GOP senators to vote to convict Trump in the proceedings. of impeachment in February who is potentially a candidate for re-election next year.

TRUMP BACKS CANDIDATE IN THE HIGH FIELD OF GOP COMPETITORS TRYING TO AVOID THE CHENEY OF CONGRESS WYOMING

Some Republicans fear that Trump’s support for the challengers against incumbent Republicans he considers traitors will come back to haunt the GOP in the 2022 general election.

Duncan accused Trump’s actions of being “counterproductive and confusing for Republicans.”

And he highlighted criticism that the then president’s claims that the 2020 elections were endemic with voter fraud contributed to a Republican turnout suppressed in the January second round, which saw the incumbent president of the GOP, the Senses. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler defeated by thin margins.

“We’ve seen the circus come to town before, most memorable in the second round with Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. We saw how 99.9% of the festivities were centered around him, talking about how he was wronged. in an election it was a fraudulent deal, and only creates and wreak havoc and confusion as to why people should or should not show up to vote, ”Duncan told Fox News.

Duncan said “at the end of the day I am grateful for his Conservative leadership.” But he lamented that if the former president “spent all of the time talking about how he ran some of these issues, we’d be better off at it. But history is a great predictor of the future and it doesn’t. He won’t. that. He’s going to come here and throw darts at a very conservative governor, throw darts at Brad Raffensperger and my leadership, and do nothing about how to help codify and merge a Republican majority to win these elections. “

LAXALT LAUNCHES 2022 SENATE RACE IN NEVADA, A MAIN GOP TARGET

Trump’s endorsement in Alaska puts him at odds with McConnell. The two are on the same wavelength in Nevada, where former state attorney general Adam Laxalt has Trump backing and appears to be the Senate Republicans’ consensus candidate.

While Trump has yet to take sides in the big and fuels the GOP Senate primaries in Arizona, Ohio, and Missouri, the former president’s endorsements in contested Senate primaries in states like the Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Alabama, as well as Georgia, are not performing well. with some Republicans in those states and on Capitol Hill.

In New Hampshire, where National Republicans are working hard to try to land GOP Governor Chris Sununu to challenge Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan next year, Trump has created some tension.

Last week, Trump congratulated retired General Don Bolduc, the only declared Republican candidate in the race, after Bolduc targeted Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley in an interview on “Fox and Friends “from Fox News. That raised eyebrows, given the full court press to recruit Sununu.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW OF ‘FOX AND FRIENDS’ THAT SPARKED THE GENERAL’S PRAISE OF TRUMP IN RETIREMENT

On Monday, Bolduc told Fox News that within hours of his “Fox and Friends” interview, he received a call from Trump.

“I was talking to a supporter and saw a call come in and I looked at him and he said ‘calling wireless West Palm Beach’,” Bolduc said.

Bolduc told Fox News that he and the former president spoke on the phone for 15 minutes, noticing that Trump told him “Don, I just wanted to call you up and let you know that I think you are doing a great job there. …. ..I think you are a leader there and wanted to give you some recognition. “

While Bolduc said he and Trump had not discussed any potential endorsements during the GOP Senate Primary in New Hampshire, the candidate added that “I honestly believe I have a good chance of getting his approval. I will continue to work hard in the hopes of earning that approval. “

Sources close to the former president told Fox News that Trump’s praise of Bolduc should not be interpreted as endorsement.

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But regardless, Trump’s praise has given Bolduc a lot of attention, potentially increasing his bid for the GOP Senate nomination.

While Trump’s approvals – for better or worse – have an immediate impact on the 2022 race, Lesperance also sees an ulterior motive. “It seems clear, Mr. Trump is playing the kingmaker role in a way that ensures he has allies in place if he runs for president again,” he assumed.