The telling seeds of the 2024 Republican primary

Where does a party go when it won't admit it lost?

GOP 2024.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Judging from the early favorites to be the party's next standard bearer and the ongoing effort to hunt down and expel Trump critics, Republicans might want to go ahead and schedule their 2024 nominating convention in Crazytown. Unless something changes dramatically, the GOP is lost to traditional figures like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for the foreseeable future, as allies of the defeated president consolidate their control over the party apparatus.

Aside from Trump himself, who may yet run again, it is two pugilistic red state governors and Trump loyalists who are garnering the most attention. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem came in first and second in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll when Trump was excluded. And while that poll is not necessarily predictive — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) won it three straight years from 2013-2015 and collected one delegate in 2016 — there are many other indicators suggesting that someone with Trump's politics and demeanor is likely to carry the day.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.