Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called it a “true change” for the GOP. Any Republican unwilling to adopt his principles, “we are completely eradicating from the party.” Later, she posted her interview statements on social media: “It’s true!”
Trump has earned support from 30 Republican senators and 120 Republican House members, significantly more than Haley or DeSantis, a former congressman who abandoned his campaign after a poor Iowa finish. Later, he backed Trump.
Experts say democracies that face threats like Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election have a better chance of survival when political parties support free and fair elections rather than fueling fraud conspiracy theories like Trump and Congress have done.
Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the sole senator to vote to convict Trump on both impeachments, including instigating the Capitol rebellion, remarked, “People want to get behind the nominee.”
Trump's staff claims turning over holdouts has been simpler than expected, citing minimal pressure campaigns and carrots used to woo legislators during phone conversations and long meals at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster clubs.
On social media, Trump warned Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who led Trump's 2020 election overturn effort but had not endorsed, to be “very careful” of their political campaigns. Soon after, Hawley endorsed. After Trump verbally assaulted Cruz's wife and family in 2016, Cruz went to Trump Tower and became Trump's “strongest” Senate ally, Cruz told AP.
And if he’s reelected in November, and I hope he is, I will again be Donald Trump’s strongest ally in the Senate,” Cruz stated. The politicians sometimes communicate to Trump's endorsement staff, directed by former White House Political Director Brian Jack, who remains his senior Capitol Hill liaison.
Jack, now a campaign senior advisor, said getting the endorsements was “not hard at all, given the hundreds and hundreds of hours President Trump has invested in relationship development and the deep connections he maintains across the party.” After endorsing Trump for Iowa, GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said she expected to meet with him within 30 days to discuss her state's objectives.
At Trump's victory celebration in Nashua, Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told the AP it's "not about the train leaving the station or one of those political cliches everybody likes to use" for those still holding out A unified Republican Party and regaining the White House in 2024 are key.
Trump's campaign dispatched South Carolina Rep. William Timmons to a rally in New Hampshire as a show of force. Timmons said he was “putting the hard press” on Republican colleagues who had endorsed Scott ahead of South Carolina's race next month.
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