Thanks in large part to Donald Trump, Republicans lost control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. In 2022, due to his meddling in key primaries, they failed to retake the Senate. Now the GOP is rushing to embrace him as their standard-bearer once more in the hopes that this time will be different and he will carry them to victory.
Only this time, Trump is heading into a general election campaign with 91 criminal charges and potential jail time awaiting him, an unprecedented situation that threatens to drag his campaign down and repel independents and even some Republican voters who are tired of the constant chaos he creates.
The alarm bells are ringing in some corners of the GOP, but it’s likely already too late to stop his march to the nomination with the Iowa caucuses firmly under his belt and a sizable lead in polls of the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.
“If Donald Trump is the nominee, the election will revolve around all these legal issues — his trials, perhaps convictions if he goes to trial and loses there, and about things like Jan. 6,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s 2024 primary rival, said during a CNN town hall earlier this week.
“We’re going to lose if that’s the decision voters are making based on that. We don’t want it to be a referendum on those issues,” added DeSantis, who placed second in Iowa on Monday and seems to be on the cusp of defeat.
Ever since winning the White House in 2016, Trump has delivered nothing but electoral losses for the GOP. In 2018, Democrats won the House by more than 40 seats thanks to a wave of anti-Trump sentiment unlocking congressional maps once thought to be perfect GOP gerrymanders. Then, two years later, Democrats swept to power in Washington, making Trump a one-term president and also winning control of the Senate with two surprise victories in Georgia, a state that had long been GOP. In 2022, Trump again dragged the GOP down, elevating far-right candidates who…
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