There are more signs that the race for the GOP presidential nomination is, if not a done deal, certainly approaching a point of no return.
Item one: the donor class that had its hopes pinned on anyone but former President Donald Trump is either never got involved with a campaign this year, or is pulling back from those candidates it hoped might break through but are instead breaking down.
A Wall Street Journal story on the subject contained this gem on the hard reality that's setting in:
“It's becoming clear the cavalry's not coming,” said Ken Spain, a longtime GOP strategist who advises the business interests on Washington. “The donor community has come to recognize the strength of Trump and the difficulty in dislodging a major part of the base from him. You're tilting at windmills if you try.”
That's another way of saying it's a waste of money supporting one of the also-rans at this point. And right on cue, the super PAC that's backed Sen. Tim Scott's campaign is cancelling its massively expensive ad push, and instead, changing to a more shoe leather campaign:
In a memo to donors, Rob Collins, co-chair of the Trust in the Mission PAC, wrote: “We aren't going to waste our money when the electorate isn't focused or ready for a Trump alternative. We have done the research. We have studied the focus groups. We have been following Tim on the trail. This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn't going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting.”
Collins added that the super PAC will continue to “fully fund our grassroots door knocking, conduit fundraising, event hosting, and earned media efforts.”
It's an open secret that big ad campaigns generally serve the financial interests of the media consultants who concoct the ads – not the political needs of the candidates. But to shift to in-person tactics after admitting the electorate is in no mood to entertain a Trump alternative? That might give some the impression the Scott campaign is still alive and scrappy. But it's probably more of a sign that the end is near, and what's happening now is merely a function of inertia.
But that doesn't mean Scott or his backers intend to go quickly or quietly…never mind throwing their support to one of the other non-Trump candidates:
“Earlier this year, the anyone-but-Trump experts told the Party that Gov. DeSantis was going to defeat Trump, and good Republicans should clear the field,” Collins wrote. “Now those same experts are calling for the field to be cleared for Gov. Haley. We also reject this advice. Campaigns have seen the polling. They have spoken to the grassroots. No serious person thinks a moderate will win this primary no matter how many elite insiders champion their candidacies.”
No serious person believes that anyone running for the GOP nomination could be considered a “moderate.” If anything, this gaggle of candidates contains more Trump wannabes and populists than it does self-styled conservatives. Moderates? They haven't been part of the GOP for more than a generation.
And if you need an additional yard stick to measure which campaigns are still viable and which are on life support, the next GOP debate is Nov. 8 in Miami, Florida. So far, only four candidates have met the polling and fundraising thresholds to appear on stage: Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
