ICYMI: GOP Senate Candidates Who Want You to Forget About Their Past Trump Criticism [Daily Beast]

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Daily Beast: Senate Candidates Who Want You to Forget About Their Past Trump Criticism

By Sam Brodey

May 29, 2023

Key points:

• In interviews in January 2021…Justice also said “anybody with the brain would say, he’s gotten way, way, way past out over his skis.”

• In Montana, wealthy businessman Tim Sheehy recently said he is backing Trump 2024 “100 percent.” But he didn’t vote for Trump in the 2016 primary and donated the maximum amount to Nikki Haley’s PAC after Jan. 6. His first campaign check to Trump came this year.

• The dilemma might be most acute for …David McCormick. …Trump dinged him for being a “Wall Street Republican.”

• Despite donating generously to various GOP candidates and causes, Tuttle has not once donated a penny to Trump or any PAC associated with him. 

• Other establishment-friendly candidates, meanwhile, are carrying a new kind of baggage in Trump’s GOP: open support for his biggest rival. In Wisconsin, [Rep. Mike] Gallagher has ruled out ever supporting Trump again after Jan. 6; in April, he was listed as a co-host for a D.C. meet-and-greet for DeSantis.

• Another potential Ohio candidate, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, introduced DeSantis at a speech in Ohio in April. LaRose, who administered Ohio’s elections in 2020, has pushed back against Trump’s election fraud claims.

See also: ICYMI: Key Republican recruits hesitate to jump in if Trump is the nominee [POLITICO]; ICYMI: GOP’s stormy 2024 outlook [Axios]; POLITICO: GOP dances around Trump’s indictment; ABC News: Republicans hope Trump indictment doesn’t doom down-ballot races; POLITICO: Playbook: The GOP faces its ‘candidate quality’ issues; Axios: Senate GOP’s 2024 landmines.  

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