Republicans are beginning to vie for the party’s nomination as the decision for who will represent the GOP in 2024 nears.
Potential rivals to Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination will be reading the runs of political fortune with their families ahead of the New Year. The turn of the new year is typically when nomination contenders begin to make themselves formally apparent.
Trump’s own campaign is off to a lacklustre start. A string of scandals and setbacks have hit the former president on his third run for the White House. Trump’s links to far-right extremists and his own legal problems have sprung up a field of potential rivals.
GOP rivals are emerging for a contest that only a few months ago many thought was Trump’s alone for the taking.
They include multiple ex-members of Trump’s own cabinet, including his own former vice-president, his former UN ambassador and his former spy chief. Adding to that are a raft of rivals with their own political power bases, such as Florida’s increasingly formidable rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis.
This holiday juncture, ahead of the kickoff to presidential campaign season, has become an informal American political tradition. Before they begin to court voters, ambitious politicians often have to gauge whether their families are on board.
Part of that decision-making process is also a way to stoke interest in their possible candidacies before making a final call.
Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence recently said that he and his wife would be discussing the possibility with their children over Christmas.
Two other Republicans — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for two years during the Trump administration — have also said they will take the holidays to consider whether to run.
Hogan is a Trump critic, and has been moving closer to a potential run for months. Hogan has said that he is likely to discuss and reflect on a potential 2024 run over the holidays, but is still focused on his “day job” as Maryland governor, which ends Jan. 18, 2023.
To Hogan and many potential Republican 2024 presidential candidates, Trump’s early announcement shortly after the midterms is not waving them off from thinking about getting into the presidential race.
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