As former President Donald Trump decides whether to run again in 2024, he is putting together a midterm election strategy aimed at getting more lawmakers in the Senate who will agree with him on key issues, Politico is reporting.
The news outlet noted some major items were stymied in the Senate during Trump’s days in the White House and he is determined to make certain that doesn’t happen again if he ends up back in office.
"If Trump is planning to run for president — which all signs point to, he is — the most important thing should be to elect more people to the Senate who share his worldview," one Republican adviser said. "I think the biggest problem Trump had in the first four years was the lack of ideological supporters in the Senate."
Trump remains the leading Republican candidate for 2024 by a wide margin, topping his leading challenger Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis by 43 percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released two weeks ago.
A majority of Republicans chose Trump (54%) when asked who they would support in the 2024 presidential GOP primary. Eleven percent chose DeSantis.
Politico pointed out that so far Trump has held off issuing any endorsements in key Senate races, including those in Missouri, Oklahoma, Ohio, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, they say he is closely analyzing and watching Senate races, where many of the Republican candidates are vying for his attention.
Trump’s decision to endorse is often the result of a personal chemistry he has with a particular candidate and from information his advisers have supplied him. Politico pointed out.
Although he was able to get three Supreme Court justices confirmed by the Senate, other Trump initiatives such as his attempt to replace Obamacare, were blocked by senators in his own party.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, said the playbook for the midterms should be simple.
"Try to keep our focus on defeating Democrats and not get involved in interim party fights," Gingrich said. "I think if we do those things, Trump has a great capacity to raise money, great capacity to focus issues and a great capacity to turn out his base."
"I think he’s better served to spend 10% on the past and 90% on the future," Gingrich added of the former president.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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