Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) on Thursday conceded that Donald Trump will win the 2024 Republican nomination.
“I don’t delude myself into thinking I have a big swath of the Republican Party,” Romney told Politico. “It’s hard to imagine anything that would derail his support. So if he wants to become the nominee in ‘24, I think he’s very likely to achieve that.”
Romney’s comment came after all Trump-endorsed candidates on Tuesday won their primary races. The highest-profile race was J.D. Vance’s Senate primary win. Vance will now contend with Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) in the general election to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). Other notable candidates include Max Miller and Madison Gesiotto Gilbert.
Former President Donald Trump listens as J.D. Vance, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, speaks during a rally hosted by the former president at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on April 23, 2022 in Delaware, Ohio. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“There’s never been an endorsement in American history that has the political punch that President Trump’s endorsement has,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told the publication.
Even Democrats admitted Trump’s endorsement put Republican candidates in the winning column on Tuesday. “When Trump endorsed Vance, on April 15, Vance was third at about 10%, behind Mandel and Gibbons each at 21%. Without Trump’s endorsement, Vance almost certainly stalls out at 10%, and finishes fourth. When Trump talks, Republicans listen,” Bill Kristol, editor at large at the Bulwark, opined after the primary.
“I told you the endorsement was going to matter. And it did,” Portman acknowledged to Politico. “He has a very high approval rating among Republican primary voters.”
Trump’s approval rating is impressive in battleground states, according to Morning Consult polling: Georgia (86 percent), North Carolina (87 percent), Ohio (80 percent), and Pennsylvania (77 percent). By contrast, Biden is underwater in 40 states. In Biden’s home state, his approval rating is only 50 percent.
Trump’s approval rating in the Republican Party is greater than President Biden’s rating in the Democrat Party. Only 76 percent of Democrats approve of Biden, while Trump’s GOP approval rating is around 90 percent.
Yet Biden has promised to run in 2024 against Trump. “He has little choice to say otherwise; an admission that he was making himself a lame duck would dramatically curb his political power,” Politico acknowledged in an article titled, “A Biden-Trump rematch is increasingly likely. But neither side wants to move first.”
According to the article, Biden has not yet decided when to make a formal reelection announcement. Despite head-to-head polling that shows Trump leading Biden by seven points, White House advisers claim his record will yield a win in 2024.
“White House aides and Biden advisers are taking initial steps to mount a bid, believing he has a strong record and would overcome intraparty concerns about his age — on Election Day 2024 he will be just shy of 82 — and shaky poll numbers,” Politico reported.
Wednesday’s polling numbers were terrible for the president, a CNN poll found. As respondents said the economy is the number one issue, Americans believe the economy is in the worse shape since January of 2012. Seventy-seven percent believe Biden’s economy is poor. Only two percent of Americans believe President Joe Biden’s economy is “very good.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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