Former President Donald Trump’s Republican detractors in the Senate are being forced to reckon with the increasing likelihood that he’ll be the party’s nominee next year.
Slightly more than half of the 222 House Republicans have endorsed Trump’s bid to return to the White House, but only 12 of the 49 GOP senators have done the same. Most Senate Republicans have said they won’t support Trump in the primary, with a few in that group even endorsing his 2024 challengers.
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Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was one of those challengers, though he’s said he’ll support the eventual nominee, as did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who famously stopped taking Trump’s calls as he refused to give up his push to overturn the 2020 election results. Scott, who earned the admiration and support of his Senate colleagues, suspended his campaign on Sunday, after lagging in the polls.
The Senate GOP conference has a large swath of centrist and establishment Republicans with penchants for bipartisanship. Several of Trump’s GOP skeptics were able to develop decent working relationships with the former president while in office.
Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 election loss, and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that ensued, left his standing with most Senate Republicans in near disrepair. Republicans went on to blame Trump for the party’s incumbents losing runoff races in Georgia, handing Democrats control of the Senate.
The former president’s GOP detractors grew more critical after Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections, only retaking the House by a slim margin and failing to regain Senate control.
Those same senators now face an uncomfortable reality: Trump is the clear front-runner in the Republican primary field and is performing ahead of President Joe Biden in some general election polls.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who had endorsed Scott’s 2024 bid, said when asked by the Washington Examiner about Trump’s lead in the polls on Wednesday, prior to Scott's Sunday surprise announcement to bow out: “It's way early in the process right now. We're hoping Tim Scott pulls it out for a number of us. We'll just have to deal with it from there."
Asked again on Thursday, Rounds maintained that he believes the primary is still open and that other candidates can close the polling gap between now and January. He cited "current events," including the multiple criminal indictments against Trump.
“Some will come around reluctantly, some of us will come around enthusiastically, and some may never get there,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the Washington Examiner of how his wary GOP colleagues would handle the former president becoming the party’s standard-bearer once again.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), who is leaving the Senate to run for governor, told the Washington Examiner that the onus will be on those skeptical GOP senators to mend fences with Trump if he's reelected next year, something he predicted would be an uphill climb.
"I think that's going to be complicated because I know this one thing: He's got a pretty good memory of who's wanted to help and who's been an antagonist. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I think that'll be an issue,” he said.
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One of those Republicans, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted that Trump would be incentivized to work with people he doesn’t like in order to be effective.
“Everyone who assumes the role of president wants to be remembered for genuine achievements. And the reality through our system of checks and balances is that in order to have achievements that are sustainable, you have to actually work with lawmakers,” the senator said.