ICYMI: GOP Senate hopefuls still want Trump’s stamp of approval [Axios]

New reporting from Axios highlights that Trump has “painted [Senate] Republican candidates into a corner” because they “feel compelled to seek his blessing” in the primary, “even though that could backfire” in the general election. 

This follows previous reporting detailing that in key battleground states across the map, GOP candidates are in a “lose-lose situation” as they “clash over Trump” in an attempt to “avoid a repeat of the 2022 debacle that saw weaker candidates emerge from contested primaries – only to peter out and collapse in the general election.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Axios: GOP Senate hopefuls still want Trump’s stamp of approval

By Sophia Cai

June 21, 2023

Key points:

• [Senate] GOP contenders are rushing to endorse former President Trump, hoping for his endorsement in return.

• He’s painted Republican candidates into a corner: Many feel compelled to seek his blessing — even though that could backfire as he faces more investigations and polls indicate most Americans think he shouldn’t run for president.
  
  
• In West Virginia, Republican Gov. Jim Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney — whose website touts Trump’s backing in last year’s U.S. House race — both have endorsed Trump for president. They’re battling for the seat.

• In Montana, businessman Tim Sheehy is being recruited to run for Sen. Jon Tester’s (D) seat. Sheehy already says he’s backing Trump “100 percent” in 2024 — though he didn’t vote for Trump in the 2016 primary and donated to a PAC favoring Nikki Haley, another GOP presidential candidate, after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
  
  
• Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno has endorsed Trump, and joined Trump supporters at the former president’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., after he was arraigned in the classified documents case in Florida. Also at the club was 2020 election denier Jim Marchant, who’s running for a Nevada Senate seat and has backed Trump in the past.
  
  
• Kari Lake, who lost a bid for Arizona governor last year and is considering a Senate bid, is a Trump supporter — as is Mark Lamb, an Arizona county sheriff who has officially entered the Senate race.
  
  
• In the most competitive races in 2022, Trump’s endorsements fell flat. His super PAC boosted candidates in seven races, winning one (an Ohio Senate seat) and losing six (Arizona governor and Senate, Michigan governor, Nevada Senate, Pennsylvania Senate, Georgia Senate).

• Some 2024 GOP Senate prospects have held off on publicly supporting Trump, apparently wary of turning off independent voters.

• Potential Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick told Politico: “There appears to be a number of great people that are going to jump into the arena, and I have not made a decision to support anybody” in the presidential race.

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose — who was endorsed by Trump when he ran for state office — is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate and says a Trump endorsement “doesn’t carry the same weight it used to.”

See also: ICYMI: GOP’s stormy 2024 outlook [Axios].

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