The 2016 Republican nominee will likely be the candidate who best blends a positive vision with organizational efficiency and is perceived as a unifier, writes veteran Republican strategist
Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal.
With the race wide open and no real front-runner, Rove notes that, atypically, more governors than senators are running. This campaign will be "wildly different," conducted between an especially large field of exceptionally strong candidates "in the fastest news cycle ever."
There will be limited benefit in bashing President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, the probable Democratic nominee. Contenders who attack fellow Republicans personally could face damaging political blowback, writes Rove.
This time candidates will have less time to "carve each other up on national TV."
Compared to 26 pre-convention debates during the 2012 campaign, there will be seven or less for 2016. Balloting also will begin later, with Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada the only states authorized to hold February contests.
Money and Super PACs will, as usual, be decisive factors. But how effectively the cash is spent will be no less important, writes Rove.
"By next January, candidates must have raised enough cash to fight all four February battles" and be able to head into the March big-state primaries with money in the bank.
"Candidates who make it to the finals will be those who focus more on solutions than on problems, more on the future than the past, and who
heed the words of Proverbs: 'Where there is no vision, the people perish,'" writes Rove.
The finalists will be those who can field campaign organizations at the national level in advance of February 2016.
At the same time, "Hyper-targeting will allow campaigns to focus TV, cable, digital, mail, phones and volunteers with incredible precision on voters more open to their appeals," he writes.
Rove, who was a driving force behind the American Crossroads political-action committee, forecasts that, "This is likely to be the most volatile, unpredictable Republican contest most Americans have ever seen.
"Get your scorecards and popcorn: The race has begun."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.