#NeverTrump GOP endorsements LATEST: Graham and Lee voted McMullin

[Mr. Morden]

Even some of the delegates won’t be going to the convention.  Former NH Sen. Judd Gregg is a Bush delegate (now unbound because Bush dropped out), and he’s going to skip out of the convention:

http://www.wmur.com/politics/-delegate-gregg-tells-wmur-he-will-not-attend-republican-national-convention/39283422

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Rep. Duncan Hunter even endorsed Trump during the primaries, but probably won’t attend:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-republican-convention-cleveland-who-going-20160516-snap-htmlstory.html

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Trump should really just pack the hall with paid actors, like he did for his campaign announcement speech.

[Mr. Morden]

A spokesman for George Pataki says the former NY governor won't back Trump "until he reverses his position on deporting millions of undocumented immigrants."

EDIT: Spokesman?  Do former governors who'll presumably never run for office again really need spokesmen?

[Mr. Morden]

Kasich says he won’t endorse Trump unless he undergoes “a transformation”:

link

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One question is: If Kasich never endorses Trump, what does that mean for Trump’s campaign in Ohio?  The WSJ, for example, just reported a couple of days ago on how Trump is lagging in organization in Ohio, because the Kasich loyalists don’t want to work for him:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-lags-behind-hillary-clinton-in-organizing-key-states-1463945208

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[Mr. Morden]

OK, by popular demand, I’ve tried compiling all the “major” current or former Republican officeholders not voting for Trump.  I’m only including people who are either current or former members of Congress, governors, or federal Cabinet officials (I guess Zoellick wasn’t technically a Cabinet official, but close enough).  I’m not including Lt. Governors or other state cabinet officials, nor state legislators or mayors.  Also not counting people who have been or currently are nominees for major office but never made it, like Rob McKenna.  Adding those people in would make it way too difficult to track, especially since in most cases, state legislators’ presidential preferences aren’t going to be readily reported in the media.

I’m also not including staffers and political aides like Mark Salter, or media people like Kristol.  This is just politicians.  If I listed every conservative media personality or prominent political aide or former assistant Secretary of such-and-such, the list would grow by something like 200 names.

Some of this is also open to interpretation, because some folks are trying to split hairs to a ridiculous extent, like saying “I’ll support but not endorse”.  Most aren’t actually splitting hairs in quite such a ludicrous manner, but because some are, one has to scrutinize the wording everyone uses, and I’ve tried to be fair in categorizing people.  I’m assuming, for example, that if someone says they won’t support Trump, that means they won’t vote for him, unless they’re obviously trying to phrase it in a confusing manner.  That said, let me know if you disagree with someone being included on the list.

Not voting for Trump
Gov. Charlie Baker (MA)
former Gov. Jeb Bush (FL)
former Sec. of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
former Sen. Norm Coleman (MN)
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL)
Rep. Bob Dold (IL)
former Sen. Slade Gorton (WA)
Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC)
Rep. Richard Hanna (NY)
Sen. Dean Heller (NV)
former Sen. Gordon Humphrey (NH)
former Rep. Bob Inglis (SC)
former Rep. Jim Kolbe (AZ)
former Sen. Mel Martinez (FL)
former Attorney General Michael Mukasey
former Rep. Ron Paul (TX)
Rep. Reid Ribble (WI)
former Gov. Tom Ridge (PA)
Rep. Scott Rigell (VA)
former Gov. Mitt Romney (MA)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL)
Rep. Mark Sanford (SC)
Sen. Ben Sasse (NE)
former Rep. J.C. Watts (OK)
former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (NJ)
former US Trade Representative / World Bank President Robert Zoellick

I’m pretty sure he’s #NeverTrump, and everyone seems to include him on their list, but I can’t actually find the original quote where he says he won’t support him in the GE
Rep. Justin Amash (MI)

Say they won’t support Trump unless he transforms his candidacy pretty significantly, in a way that’s pretty unlikely to happen (e.g., some say that if he backs away from the Muslim ban, or mass deportation, or stops insulting people, then they might back him)
former Rep. Tom DeLay (TX)
Sen. Jeff Flake (AZ)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX)
Gov. John Kasich (OH)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL)
former Gov. George Pataki (NY)
former Rep. Joe Scarborough (FL)

As far as I can tell, they’ve indicated that they’re not going to publicly comment on who they support for the duration of the campaign
former Pres. George H.W. Bush
former Pres. George W. Bush
Gov. Larry Hogan (MD)
Gov. Rick Snyder (MI)

There are of course, many more people (e.g., Paul Ryan, Susana Martinez, Ted Cruz) who have not *yet* indicated how they’ll be voting in November, but unlike the Bushes, they’re open to expressing their presidential preference at some point during the campaign.  I’m not tracking everyone in that category, as it’s a very long list.  It would be great if some media organization went through every member of Congress and detailed which ones haven’t yet endorsed Trump, or fall in different categories like “endorse with conditions”, etc., but I haven’t seen anyone do that.

[Mr. Morden]

*bumping* this comment from ~2.5 months ago:

To be fair, there are always non-endorsers. Chafee refused to support Bush in 2004, Boren refused to support Obama in 2008.

Usually just a max of one or two major officeholders per election though.

That's true, but I wonder how many of "never Trump" crowd would eventually fall in line if he's nominated: "well yes, I had some doubts but the most important thing now is to unite and prevent Obama's third term".

I mean, here we are.  Trump is the de facto nominee, and so far, as far as I can tell, the number of Republican politicians who rule out supporting Trump in the general election is higher now than it was during the primaries.  While Trump has done well in consolidating GE support among Republican *voters* (though actually still a bit behind Clinton's support among Dems in most polls), there is nothing normal about the number of Republican "elites" who are refusing to back him.  It doesn't usually work like this.

[Mr. Morden]

What's with Rauner (R-IL)?

He's doing the same as Ayotte by saying that he supports the nominee but won't endorse (as if endorse and support are different things).  I didn't list people in that category, because it's such a mind-numbingly stupid position.

[Mr. Morden]

btw Lindsey Graham isn't #nevertrump anymore. He's actually fundraising for Trump

No, not true:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=237250.msg5081873#msg5081873

[Mr. Morden]

Would it be possible to move this list to the first post of this or another thread so it's easier to update and follow it?

Done.  I've hijacked the OP to include the list.

The first change I made was crossing out Louie Gohmert's name from the list of people who would "support with conditions".  In this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7FHVfF943Q&feature=youtu.be

he clarifies his earlier comments, saying that when he talked about "support" earlier, he just meant that he wouldn't defend or act as a surrogate for Trump unless Trump cleaned up his act.  But he says he's still planning to vote for Trump as the least bad option.  So I've taken him off the list, as I'm only counting people not intending to vote for Trump.

[Mr. Morden]

I think you can safely add to the NeverTrumpers list Miami's Republican mayor, Tomas Regalado.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/us/politics/donald-trump-general-election-battleground.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1

Mr. Regalado, a former broadcast journalist, intends to sit out the presidential race. He considers Mrs. Clinton untrustworthy, but views Mr. Trump as a poisonous candidate who has aggravated racial divisions. In Miami, Mr. Regalado said, Mr. Trump is seen as “a bully, as a person who despises people that don’t look like him.”

Yeah, San Diego's Republican mayor is also #NeverTrump, as I mentioned earlier in the thread.  But I wasn't including mayors in the list in the OP, because where do you draw the line as to what's a significant enough city to bother including?  I'm open to adding them though if someone wants propose a standard re: which mayors govern cities big enough that they're worth including in the list.

[Mr. Morden]

Former Rep. Ray LaHood (IL) won't vote for Trump:

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20160526/NEWS/160529638

[Mr. Morden]

There's a "Stop Trump movement" Wikipedia page, that lists many of the same people we've talked about in this thread, with references included:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Trump_movement#By_individuals

Only problem is, their list mixes together people who've ruled out voting for him in the GE, and those (like Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan) who say they simply haven't made up their minds yet.

The "I'm not endorsing him yet, but I still might" group of Republicans remains rather large, and I haven't seen anyone try to put together a comprehensive list of that group.

[Mr. Morden]

Rick Snyder insists again that he’s not going to endorse anyone in the presidential race:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/02/snyder-decides-endorsing-trump-president/85270198/

The NYT has a new story on all the people who are skipping the RNC this year, including some who were selected as delegates:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-convention.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

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As the story notes, Rand Paul is also a convention delegate, yet hasn't decided yet if he's going to attend.  And both Kasich and Portman are noncommittal about attending too, even though the convention is in their own state.

[Mr. Morden]

Wikipedia also has a list of people who *have* endorsed Trump:

link

However, they’re pretty inconsistent about what counts as an endorsement.  For example, they include Nikki Haley as an endorsement even though she’s used the “support the nominee” but not “endorse” formulation, but they don’t include a bunch of other people who belong in that same category.

Without going through all of them one by one, I think that out of the 32 current Republican governors, maybe ~a third of them have given a real endorsement of Trump, without hedging (though even several of them say there are things about him they don’t like).  Most of the rest use some kind of weasel words about “support the nominee” without saying his name, or they dodge the question or even say they won’t comment on the presidential race for the duration of the campaign, because they’re “too busy” running their state government to worry about national politics, or something like that.  Then you have Charlie Baker who is #NeverTrump, and Kasich who says he’d only back Trump if he significantly changed his campaign and what it stands for.

Congress seems to be similar.  Many many people who are using some kind of weaselly “support the nominee” language or dodging the question, but also a significant block (yet still a minority) who have given Trump a full throated endorsement, and a small group of #NeverTrump diehards.

I can’t think of any modern precedent for so many people in elected office in one of the major parties declining to answer the question or giving some kind of weaselly split the difference type answer when asked if they’ll support their party’s presidential nominee.  Was it like this with Goldwater and McGovern?

[Mr. Morden]

Btw, I went through the list of Republican Senators up for reelection this year one by one, and many of them have offered Ayotte-esque tepid support for Trump like “I support the nominee, but don’t consider that an endorsement”.  But I think all but three have offered some kind of nominal support at least.

The three remaining holdouts—Republican Senators up for reelection this year who who have not (yet) indicated that they’re going to support Trump—are:

Mike Lee (UT): http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mike-lee-on-donald-trump-he-scares-me-to-death/article/2591104

Jerry Moran (KS): http://cjonline.com/news/2016-05-04/top-kansas-republicans-say-theyll-back-trump-some-wont#

Pat Toomey (PA): https://www.buzzfeed.com/christophermassie/pat-toomey-i-hope-we-dont-get-to-a-point-where-i-cant-suppor?utm_term=.feeRkd2Dq#.dajlKqbeX

Toomey previously said he’d “support the nominee”, but as the link above indicates, he’s kind of backtracked and now says he might not.

None of those three are #NeverTrump though, as they don’t seem to have ruled out supporting him at some point in the future.  They’ve just said that they haven’t decided yet.

[Mr. Morden]

While I disagree with where they place some of the names on the list, TPM has the most comprehensive overview I've seen of which current GOP governors and members of Congress have endorsed Trump, refused to endorse him, or ended up somewhere in between:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/elected-official-trump-endorsement-scorecard

[Mr. Morden]

A Republican Iowa state senator has dropped his party registration in protest over Trump:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/iowa-gop-senator-suspends-party-membership-to-protest-trump/2016/06/07/6d5d7d10-2d0b-11e6-b9d5-3c3063f8332c_story.html

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[Mr. Morden]

I took Dean Heller off the list in the OP, because, after digging into his public comments more, it looks like he's just undecided on how to vote, not that he's ruling out Trump:

http://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/may/04/heller-to-vote-against-clinton-not-necessarily-for/

However, Mark Kirk's been added to the list in the OP, as he now appears to be #NeverTrump.

Also, it looks like Brian Sandoval has moved from "supports Trump" to "undecided":

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/nevada-gov-sandoval-voting-trump-not-sure-n587426

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[Mr. Morden]

In this interview (at about the ~4:20 mark) Mitch McConnell is asked if he thinks Donald Trump is fit to be president, and he dodges the question, simply saying that “The American people will decide” in November:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-utLdJo69U

So we have the Republican Speaker of the House endorsing the party’s presidential nominee, yet accusing him of making racist comments, and the Republican Senate Majority Leader endorsing the party’s presidential nominee, but not answering the question when asked if he’s actually fit to be president.

Seems like a healthy political party.

[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/JoePerticone/status/740520444747522048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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[Mr. Morden]

During the primaries, Dan Coats said that he’d support whoever the nominee was, but I don’t think he’s actually offered any endorsement of Trump since he clinched the nomination.  Yesterday, he wouldn’t even say what issues he agrees with Trump on:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/us/politics/paul-ryan-donald-trump-gonzalo-curiel.html

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[Mr. Morden]

I added Chris Shays to the list in the OP.

Scott Walker seems to have walked back his Trump endorsement to “undecided”:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/scott-walker-trump-endorsement-224059

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Meanwhile, things aren’t great for Trump on Capitol Hill:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-senate-support-224085

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Only eight?  Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 10 Republican Senators who haven’t even offered an Ayotte-esque “I support the nominee, though with reservations” boilerplate statement of support:

Coats
Collins
Cruz
Flake
Graham
Heller
Kirk
Lee
Sasse
Toomey

And I’m sure there are others, as I haven’t bothered to go through each Senator one by one.

But hey, at least he now has the support of Jerry Moran:

http://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/now-consider-this/article82345032.html

[Mr. Morden]

McConnell says Trump "doesn't know a lot about the issues":

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-10/mcconnell-trump-issues

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So, within a span of two days, McConnell has said that he's not sure if Trump is fit to be president, that he doesn't know a lot about the issues, and that he vehemently objects to many of the things Trump says.

But he's still backing Trump, because he says Trump will be better on the issues he care about than Clinton.

Again....seems like a healthy political party.

[Mr. Morden]

Only eight?  Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 10 Republican Senators who haven’t even offered an Ayotte-esque “I support the nominee, though with reservations” boilerplate statement of support:

Coats
Collins
Cruz
Flake
Graham
Heller
Kirk
Lee
Sasse
Toomey

To add to the above: I think Cory Gardner also hasn't endorsed Trump, or even given any kind of "support the nominee" type of statement.  So that's 11 sitting Republican Senators who are hold outs.  I think, perhaps, all of the other 43 current Republican Senators have at least offered some kind of "I support the nominee" type of statement, even if they won't say Trump's name.

[Mr. Morden]

Meg Whitman, having compared Trump to Hitler in recent days, clarifies that she is indeed #NeverTrump:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/gop-donors-donald-trump-224218

So the Whitman in the subject line of this thread has two meanings, I guess.

[Mr. Morden]

Looks like several Congressional Republicans have taken a new tack on Trump: Refuse to talk about him.  E.g., Cornyn says he isn’t going to talk about Trump anymore until the election is over:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/senate-trump-gop-orlando-224339

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Seems even more likely now that there will be no pressure from Republican leadership to get those members who refuse to endorse Trump to back him.