President Donald Trump is flexing his muscle, unlike any other former president, in endorsing several 2022 GOP candidates.
Clearly establishing himself as still the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump’s endorsement is hands-down the most sought after in the Republican Party, and Trump isn’t disappointing.
The former president – eight months removed from the White House – remains extremely popular and influential with Republican voters and politicians as he aims to continue playing a kingmaker’s role in the GOP.
And as Trump repeatedly flirts with another White House run in 2024, thanks to a spate of recent endorsements, he’s now backed nearly 40 Republicans running in elections this year and next year, from statewide races such as senator and governor to down-ballot contests.
It’s uncharted waters for a former president to remain so immensely involved in party politics. But Trump’s no normal former president.
“Once again, former President Trump is proving to march to the beat of his own drums,” veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance said. The vice president of academic affairs at New England College said the number of Trump endorsements so far this year are “unheard of in recent political memory.”
The former president’s political endorsements come as the GOP aims to win back majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. Sometimes Trump’s endorsements are in sync with Republican leaders in Congress, and sometimes they’re divergent. And often, they’re bestowed on those Republicans who support his repeated unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. Among them are secretary of state candidates in Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, three states Trump narrowly lost last year to now-President Biden.
Regardless of the circumstances, Trump’s backing carries an incredible amount of clout within the GOP, which can make a huge difference in key battleground states, such as Georgia.
Two months after Biden topped Trump by a razor-thin margin in Georgia, the Democrats swept the state’s twin Senate runoff contests, giving them the majority in the chamber.
For months, Trump’s vowed to return to Georgia, to take aim at the top Republicans in the state – Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – to politically punish them for refusing to help his efforts to overturn the election results in the Peach State.
Trump has endorsed Rep. Jody Hice in his primary challenge against Raffensperger, and he’s backing state Sen. Burt Jones in the race to succeed Duncan, who decided against running for reelection next year. While Trump has yet to support any primary challenge against Kemp, he’s pledged to return to Georgia to campaign against the governor.
In addition, Trump has already endorsed challengers taking on four of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him at the beginning of the year for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists aimed at disrupting congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory.
And Trump’s backing former Alaska commissioner of administration Kelly Tshibaka, who’s challenging longtime Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the only one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in February’s impeachment trial who’s potentially running for reelection next year.
While Trump’s endorsements — for better or worse — immediately impact the 2022 race, Lesperance also sees an ulterior motive. “It seems clear, Mr. Trump is playing the role of kingmaker in a way that ensures he has allies in place should he make a run again for president,” he surmised.