#NeverTrump GOP endorsements LATEST: Graham and Lee voted McMullin

[Mr. Morden]

That they chose DONALD TRUMP by LARGE PLURALITIES, and that these pluralities grew as the field winnowed, is, to me, indisputable proof that the GOP rank and file is not in sync with its leadership.

~40% is still a minority.  Look, the GOP rank and file isn't all one thing.  Some of them are in sync with Trump, and some of them aren't.  Until the very end, when I think the voters kind of pushed him over the finish line due to exhaustion, his favorability #s among Republican voters were hardly the strongest in the field, and he consistently led in the "Who would you *NOT* vote for" category.  The idea that the ~40% who chose him makes him the overwhelming consensus choice of the voters because no other single candidate did as well as he did (as if the other ~60% isn't also part of the "rank and file") is ludicrous.

The vast majority will still back him in the end because he's not Hillary Clinton, but the same would have happened for any number of other possible candidates if they'd won the nomination.

[Mr. Morden]

Don't know if Mr. Morden posted it but Larry Hogan becomes the third Republican governor who says that he won't vote for TRUMP.

https://twitter.com/OvettaWashPost/status/743144158794219525

I know Baker and Hogan, but who is the third?

Rick Snyder according to the reporters.

Hogan had previously said that he wouldn’t comment on the presidential race, so yeah, this is new (and I’ve added him to the list in the OP).  He becomes the second sitting Republican governor to be #NeverTrump, along with Baker.

Sorry, Snyder doesn’t count.  AFAIK, Snyder has basically followed the line that Hogan was previously using (which is also being used by both Bush 41 and Bush 43).  He’s not endorsing anyone, or commenting on the presidential race.  Not the same as saying he won’t vote for Trump.  Unless there's a more definitive statement out there that I haven't seen?

Haslam, Kasich, and Martinez have also not endorsed Trump (or anyone), and there may be others who I’m forgetting at the moment.  Kasich has pretty much said that Trump would have to substantially transform his candidacy in order to get his endorsement, while Haslam and Martinez have been more vague about their intentions.

Sandoval and Walker endorsed Trump initially, but then both of them later pulled back their endorsements and now says they’re not sure.

[Mr. Morden]

A month and a half ago, Joe Scarborough was mocking #NeverTrump, saying it was just 12 people on Twitter, and that Republicans would come to realize that they had to choose between Clinton and Trump:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW10wpyeMtw

Now he's urging Republican politicians to stand up to Trump, and draw lines in the sand like "I won't endorse you until you do X, Y, and Z":

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/joe-scarborough-gop-trump-224355

[Mr. Morden]

I'd like to hear from Mr. Morden too if today's interview of Kasich qualifies him as #NeverTrump.

What did he say that might qualify him as #NeverTrump?  It sounds like it's same as always from him: He won't support Trump unless he sees changes from Trump:

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/john-kasich-joe-scarborough-i-m-not-interested-being-spoiler-n593486

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Fred Upton is #NeverTrump.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/16/upton-endorsing-trump-train-track/85982354/

Eh....sorry to be a stickler on this, but "I won't endorse anyone this year" doesn't quite qualify, IMHO.  I've added him to the list in the OP, but under the category of "staying out of it", along with Bush 41, Bush 43, and Snyder.  #NeverTrump means you're not going to vote for him, and Upton saying that he won't publicly endorse anyone doesn't really tell me how (or if) he's going to vote.

[Mr. Morden]

So I think the remaining 2016 Republican presidential candidates who haven’t endorsed Trump are Bush, Graham, Kasich, Pataki, Cruz, Fiorina, and Walker.  Bush and Graham have ruled it out, Kasich and Pataki say they won’t do it unless Trump changes, and Cruz and Fiorina pretty much won’t talk about it.  Walker had endorsed him, but has now pulled back the endorsement, and it isn’t clear under what conditions he’d give it back.

Fiorina’s been especially quiet about it, but there’s a new story in the Washington Examiner about how she’ll now be campaigning for Republicans in downballot races (starting with Rand Paul and Pat Toomey), but that she doesn’t plan on doing any stumping for Trump:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fiorina-wont-lift-a-finger-to-help-trump/article/2593918

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[Mr. Morden]

Mark Kirk says he’ll write in David Petraeus.  He also goes farther than any of the other #NeverTrumpers in his criticism of Trump by calling him “racist”:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/mark-kirk-trump-racist-224427

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Some of the others, like Romney, have called Trump “offensive”, and accused him of “targeting groups of people” or other such phrases that imply bigotry.  But Kirk might be the first one to use the r-word.

[Mr. Morden]

Fred Upton is #NeverTrump.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/16/upton-endorsing-trump-train-track/85982354/

Eh....sorry to be a stickler on this, but "I won't endorse anyone this year" doesn't quite qualify, IMHO.  I've added him to the list in the OP, but under the category of "staying out of it", along with Bush 41, Bush 43, and Snyder.  #NeverTrump means you're not going to vote for him, and Upton saying that he won't publicly endorse anyone doesn't really tell me how (or if) he's going to vote.

Upton didn't just say that he won't endorse. He had harsh words for Trump and his campaign. Maybe he didn't explicitly say that he won't vote for him but that's not the attitude of someone who despite his misgivings would still pull the lever out of party loyalty.

Well, OK, but I'm just going off of what they've publicly said.  I'm assuming that many of the Republicans who've actually endorsed him (maybe even Paul Ryan) aren't actually going to vote for him, since they think he's terrible.  But I have no way of knowing what they're going to do in the voting booth, so I just make the list based on public statements.

[Mr. Morden]

Scowcroft endorses Clinton:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/06/22/brent-scowcroft-hillary-clinton-endorsement/86263096/

I've added him to the list in the OP.

Meanwhile, previously announced #NeverTrumper former Sen. Gordon Humphrey says he's working full time to convince New England delegates to rebel against Trump at the convention:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-delegate-revolt-224634

[Mr. Morden]

GW Bush Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson is backing Clinton:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/henry-paulson-hillary-clinton-voting-224793

[Mr. Morden]

Mia Love is another one who will skip the convention:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4045493-155/rep-mia-love-will-skip-republican

[Mr. Morden]

George Will has left the Republican Party, seemingly over Trump:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/george-will-leaves-gop-224801

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[Mr. Morden]

Trump is lashing out at his former rivals who still haven't endorsed him, saying that those who betrayed the pledge to back the winner should 'never be allowed to run for public office again':

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-republican-pledge-224952

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He has a point.  Amazingly, as far back as March, many of the candidates started backing out of the pledge, with one saying “no, I don’t anymore” after being asked at a CNN town hall if he would stick by the pledge.

Oh wait, that candidate was Trump:

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-trump-drops-pledge-to-back-republican-presidential-nominee-other-than-himself-2016-3?IR=T

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[Mr. Morden]

David Valadao says he can't support Trump.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-republican-in-heavily-latino-district-1466711716-htmlstory.html

"I am disappointed with the divisive rhetoric coming from this Presidential Election and cannot support either candidate. I cannot back a candidate who denigrates people based on their ethnicity, religion, or disabilities,"

OK, I added him to the list in the OP.

The #NeverTrump list has markedly grown since he became the de facto nominee last month.  Remember when many folks here were saying that all these people were going to fall in line, because there's no way they'd do anything that could be seen as helping Hillary Clinton?

[Mr. Morden]

Two prominent Wisconsin Republicans, one of them a former governor, quit from their delegate slots because they don't want to vote for TRUMP.

Don't want to vote for him at the convention, but in that story McCallum says he's undecided about whether he'll vote for Trump in November, so I'll leave him off of the #NeverTrump list for now.

[Mr. Morden]

Former Montana governor, Marc Racicot, urges Republican delegates to dump TRUMP.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/americans-can-choose-better-than-trump/2016/06/30/1db143c0-3efc-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html?postshare=2831467400830567&tid=ss_tw

OK.  Racicot ends that column with "I cannot endorse or support Trump for president.", so I've added him to the list in the OP.

In other news, Romney says he might write in his wife's name:

http://www.businessinsider.com/mitt-romney-refuses-trump-and-clinton-may-vote-for-a-third-party-candidate-2016-7?IR=T

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[Mr. Morden]

To date, the only Republican politician I'm aware of who said he wouldn't vote for Trump and then sort of softened his position to "maybe" is Dean Heller.  But as of now, he's still opposed:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-gop-skeptics-224955

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We're a couple of weeks out from the convention, and Trump has been the de facto nominee for two months now.  And not a single prominent #NeverTrumper has endorsed him.  What happened to the people saying that these folks were all going to fold any minute now?

[Mr. Morden]

To date, the only Republican politician I'm aware of who said he wouldn't vote for Trump and then sort of softened his position to "maybe" is Dean Heller.  But as of now, he's still opposed:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-gop-skeptics-224955

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We're a couple of weeks out from the convention, and Trump has been the de facto nominee for two months now.  And not a single prominent #NeverTrumper has endorsed him.  What happened to the people saying that these folks were all going to fold any minute now?

To be fair some of them did initially, Rubio being the most egregious example.

Rubio never actually ruled out voting for Trump though.  Even in the middle of his worst feuding with Trump in the primaries, he didn't rule out voting for Trump, so I don't see how he would have ever counted as #NeverTrump.  He used a #NeverTrump hashtag in a tweet at one point, but when someone asked him about it a few days later, he said he thought it just meant never voting for Trump in the primaries, not the general election.  None of the people who actually ruled out voting for Trump in the general election have endorsed him.

[Mr. Morden]

If so many prominent GOPers are opposed to the Trumpster, the convention will likely end up in a mess.

None of them are going, though.  Nearly everyone prominent who hasn't endorsed Trump is avoiding the convention.  Though, yes, there will definitely be plenty of anti-Trump delegates there, but almost all of them are nobodies.

[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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Walker’s now re-endorsed Trump, albeit without mentioning his name:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/06/scott-walker-just-gave-donald-trump-the-most-tepid-endorsement-ever/

I think that leaves six sitting Republican governors who are currently not backing Trump, not even offering an “I support the nominee” statement:

Baker
Haslam
Hogan
Kasich
Martinez
Sandoval

Though I think of that list, only Baker and Hogan have definitively ruled out backing him.  The others at least nominally say they might still be persuaded.

Also, of Trump’s 16 rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, I think these are the ones left who have not endorsed him, even with an “I support the nominee” type statement:

Bush
Cruz
Fiorina
Graham
Kasich
Pataki

[Mr. Morden]

Cook breaks down the house...

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They note that those in close races are the ones more likely to be on the skeptical end of the spectrum.  

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the full lists of each category are at http://cookpolitical.com/story/9746

Good list.  On their list of "won't support Trump" people, it's mostly the familiar names that I already have, though I also noticed Kay Granger, and according to this:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article77567212.html

it looks like she's in the "I'm not going to announce support for anyone for the duration of the campaign" category, like Rick Snyder.  So I've added her to the list in the OP, under that category.

Cook also lists Huizenga and Moolenaar as "will never vote for / support Trump", but I don't know what the source is for that.  From this story:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/16/upton-endorsing-trump-train-track/85982354/

it sounds like they're both Trump skeptics, but haven't ruled anything out.

[Mr. Morden]

Politico has a story about all the “neocons” who have vowed not to back Trump in the general election:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/trump-clinton-neoconservatives-220151

Bill Kristol has already talked about the fact that he’d back a 3rd party candidate rather than go with Trump, but there’s also this letter signed by 60 Republican “foreign policy insiders” (including conservative author Max Boot, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Bush State Department officials Elliot Cohen and Robert Zoellick) who say they won’t support a Republican ticket led by Trump:

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Politico says that several of the people who signed this letter have gone a step farther, by saying that they prefer Clinton to Trump....with one even saying that he won't vote for any Republican who endorses Trump:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/national-security-clinton-trump-225137

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[Mr. Morden]

Tom Kean says he's undecided, but says there's a good chance he won't vote for anyone for president:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/kelly-n-j-gop-icon-tom-kean-to-skip-convention-1.1629137

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[Mr. Morden]

Politico has a story about all the “neocons” who have vowed not to back Trump in the general election:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/trump-clinton-neoconservatives-220151

Bill Kristol has already talked about the fact that he’d back a 3rd party candidate rather than go with Trump, but there’s also this letter signed by 60 Republican “foreign policy insiders” (including conservative author Max Boot, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Bush State Department officials Elliot Cohen and Robert Zoellick) who say they won’t support a Republican ticket led by Trump:

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Bumping this, as the NYT says that one of the co-signers of this letter, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, will speak at the convention next week:

http://nyti.ms/29ZvLYq

I'll wait and see what, if anything, he has to say about Trump before taking him off the list in the OP.

[Mr. Morden]

Mukasey didn't say anything about Trump in his speech.  He spent the whole time attacking Hillary Clinton.

In other news....Gary Johnson says he’s been talking to Jeb Bush:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/gary-johnson-jeb-bush-225875

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[Mr. Morden]

Both former Sen. Larry Pressler (SD) and former Gov. Arne Carlson (MN) are backing Clinton over Trump.  I’ve added them to the list in the OP:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/283330-former-gop-senator-endorses-clinton-after-orlando-shooting
http://www.citypages.com/news/why-former-gov-arne-carlson-republican-is-voting-for-hillary-clinton-8354720

Carlson says he thinks Trump might be mentally ill:

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While Pressler is comparing the Trumpistas to the Nazis:

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