#NeverTrump GOP endorsements LATEST: Graham and Lee voted McMullin

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

You people are ridiculous. Pick your poison.

If having free trade is the most important thing to you, then vote Democratic.

If having an aggressive foreign policy is the most important, then vote Democratic.

If keeping taxes and regulations low is your top priority, then vote Republican.

If maintaining the traditional GOP social-cultural policies (pro-life, pro-gun, anti-LGBT) is most important, then vote Republican.

There are only two major parties in this country. The idea that you think you're entitled to have a party that gives you EVERYTHING you want is absurd. Prioritize your issues and make trade-offs. A lot of us who are unaffiliated or moderate voters have been doing that for years.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

You people are ridiculous. Pick your poison.

If having free trade is the most important thing to you, then vote Democratic.

If having an aggressive foreign policy is the most important, then vote Democratic.

If keeping taxes and regulations low is your top priority, then vote Republican.

If maintaining the traditional GOP social-cultural policies (pro-life, pro-gun, anti-LGBT) is most important, then vote Republican.

There are only two major parties in this country. The idea that you think you're entitled to have a party that gives you EVERYTHING you want is absurd. Prioritize your issues and make trade-offs. A lot of us who are unaffiliated or moderate voters have been doing that for years.

No, the point of voting third-party is to show that there's enough popular support for a particular policy position that it forces one of the major parties to put it on the party platform. And that may be what conservatives have to do to bring the GOP back into line.

What policy position do you want that neither party is advocating for?

I don't think you get that the great unwashed middle class is not going to vote to give rich people more tax cuts anymore unless they get the bigotry and nativism that they need to make that tolerable for them.

Donald Trump is going to give you *most* of what you want. If the way it's packaged and delivered offends your delicate little country club sensibilities, deal with it.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

any guesses which one of these Never Trumpers will speak at the DNC? My money is on Whitman.

Whitman might make a good VP pick for Hillary if she were shrewd enough.

Christine Todd Whitman or Meg Whitman? Both seem like poor choices for different reasons.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Former US Sen. Gordon Humphrey (NH) says he won’t support Trump:

http://www.unionleader.com/Trump_Lewandowski_voted_NH_delegation_chair

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Humphrey is one of New Hampshire’s delegates to the RNC this year (pledged to John Kasich).

Gordon Humphrey was basically the Ted Cruz of the 1980s when he was in the Senate. Huge piece of work.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

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

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

Moderate Republican and of Middle Eastern descent and very bipartisan - basically he has too many reasons not to vote for Trump.

Hillary would be very wise to try to get him on board a "Republicans for Hillary" committee.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

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.

And what the hell are they going to do when the press asks them questions about Trump, or when someone in the audience at one of their events goes rogue and asks a question? (It will happen and there will be people recording it.)

Are Americans going to be treated to footage of GOP incumbents literally running away when someone mentions Trump's name?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-politics/20160617/after-45-years-danny-jones-leaves-republican-party

The Mayor of Charleston, West Virginia Danny Jones has left the Republican Party citing the rise of Trump and the State Legislators insistence on "religious freedom" type bills. Jones has said he will vote for Gary Johnson in the fall.

WV seems like one of the few places this is a bad move politically.

Then again I assume that once WV's realignment is complete, you'll have Democrats in Charleston and maybe the eastern panhandle and Republicans everywhere else.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Add Slade Gorton to the Republicans who won't vote for Trump.

http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/pray-for-a-third-party-candidate/

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Brent Scowcroft is probably one of the greatest foreign policy minds of the GOP.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Senator Kirk (R-IL): "I'll write in Colin Powell".

>Not voting for a legitimate third party like the libertarians, Constitution, or even that Evan McMullin guy.

>Doing a write-in vote instead for a general who hasn't been relevant since 2000

Is he nuts? No wonder he's losing to Tammy Duckworth. Useless.

I honestly think the states that don't count all write-in votes shouldn't even offer it as an option.

Most people don't understand that if you write in the name of someone who is not registered as an official write-in candidate, it is functionally equivalent to not voting. Your ballot will be thrown out. It will not be included in the final totals. It will be as though you just stayed home.

And we should just do away with the whole "official write-in candidate" thing altogether and have those people on the ballot as independents.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Former US Senator John Warner of Virginia is endorsing Clinton.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

That's the nail in the coffin to Trump's chances at winning Virginia. Sad how different this state is compared to just 12 years ago.

Don't worry. North Carolina is next.

Then Georgia!

No! This virus must be stopped, contained and eradicated. It needs to be stopped, or else it is going to destroy the entire country very soon!!!!



LOL jk. On a serious note, I am convinced Virginia will remain competitive for the next 8 years, and that the combination of Tim Kaine being Clinton's running mate, and Trump (who is beyond a terrible fit for the state) is the Republican nominee is what will make Virginia vote so left compared to the nation. I think a Bobby Scott vs. Barbara Comstock 2017 Senate race is Tilt R. Call me crazy, but Comstock is a great candidate, and Scott is a weak one for being the weaker fundraiser and campaigner, plus Comstock hailing from the only true swing district in the state.

Honestly not very surprising.  He endorsed Mark Warner in 2014 (and, who knows, could very well have been his saving grace ).

Given how close that race was, I wonder if Warner endorsing and campaigning for Gillespie would have tipped over just enough votes.

Would the VA GOP let Comstock be the nominee? She's okay for NoVA but she's a country club RINO by statewide party standards.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I think Graham will come around. Fmr. Governor Sununu endorsed Trump today by the way.

Why would Graham endorse Trump? What does he have to gain? He isn't up for reelection until 2020, he'll probably get a primary challenger anyway, and there's a good chance he'll retire (and I wouldn't blame him).

Graham signed the pledge, as a former presidential candidate. Priebus said he plans some sort of punishment,

Priebus may very well not be around in 2020.

He might not be chairman, but he won't be dead. An endorsement from a Former RNC chair would be a pretty big boost to someone running against Graham (or Kasich/Cruz/Jeb!)

And what would be his incentives to do this, if he is no longer chairman?

A belief that pledges should mean something.

I really think you're overestimating the extent to which anyone will care about these pledges anymore by December, let alone by 2019.

Assuming Clinton wins, Priebus won't care about this issue anymore in six weeks.  And even if he did, no one will care what he thinks anymore if he's no longer chairman in 2019.

It's not necessarily Priebus that's the issue.

There are people saying that Cruz's impetus for endorsing Trump was to get on the good side of Rebekah Mercer, who was one of his megadonors in the primary but who has very strongly jumped on board the Trump Train since then.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I don't know much about Schwarz.  But Sherwood Boehlert and Claudine Schneider were definitely NOT conservative Republicans.  Boehlert was very much a moderate, middle-of-the-road Republican, and Schneider was one of the last members of Congress that could be described as a liberal Republican.

In Mr. Trump's own words, "It's the Republican Party. It's not called the Conservative Party."

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

My representative (Elise Stefanik) still supports Trump. I really hope she gets voted out, but the Green Party has a major spoiler here, ruining this district's even PVI.

She's a Millennial, which makes it even more disgusting that she'd buy into this crap.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Oh my.....

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https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/784856232247103488

Ted Cruz really is one of the most monumentally stupid politicians ever to have existed.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Uh Oh...The torches and pitchforks are coming out for Reince...

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300007-pennsylvania-lawmaker-says-priebus-should-step-down-if

This is like watching a coup unfold in a developing country.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Will Hurd (TX-23) is ditching Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-latest-clinton-campaign-wont-confirm-leaked-emails/2016/10/07/bb0bfa6a-8ceb-11e6-8cdc-4fbb1973b506_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_3_na

He's probably gone after November anyway. Might as well keep his dignity on the way out.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Uh Oh...The torches and pitchforks are coming out for Reince...

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300007-pennsylvania-lawmaker-says-priebus-should-step-down-if

This is like watching a coup unfold in a developing country.

Well according to Donald Trump, America is now a developing country.

The Ides of July, Pt. 2.

The Trumpadorian Reaction?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Not sure why Bob Bentley is denouncing Trump, seeing as he had no qualms about grabbing his young female staffer by the pussy, leading Mrs. Bentley to divorce him and the Legislature to consider removing him from office over various related improprieties.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

CO-SEN candidate Darryl Glenn is backpedaling from his unendorsement of Trump, although he hasn't officially ununendorsed him yet.  http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/88235/republican-base-outraged-by-flight-from-trump

CO GOP really swung and missed with this Senate race.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I wonder why Ted Cruz is being so malleable. He isn't running for senate.

I'm pretty sure Trump didn't promise him some plush cabinet post either

He is in 2018 and the sharks are circling to primary him.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I don't understand why these people could just vote for Johnson or McMullin.

It is completely meaningless to say you're "against Trump (and Clinton)" and then offer no alternative.

Of course, the GOP's MO in all things, such as healthcare reform, is to whine about the options and then not offer anything better.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Historically, when a significant faction of one party is completely unwilling to support the nominee, they support the other party's nominee or a third party.

See: Liberal Republicans (1872); Silver Republicans and Gold Democrats (1896); Democrats for Nixon (1972)

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Historically, when a significant faction of one party is completely unwilling to support the nominee, they support the other party's nominee or a third party.

See: Liberal Republicans (1872); Silver Republicans and Gold Democrats (1896); Democrats for Nixon (1972)

That's not really been true in recent years.  And there's a difference between "prominent" members of a party supporting the opposition and current elective and appointive officials bolting the party, even to merely state that they're not voting for their party's national ticket.

If you look at the list of "Democrats for Nixon", the vast majority of them were former elected or appointive officials whose prospects as future Democratic officeholders was nearly nil.  There were a few elective Democrats that did not endorse the McGovern-Shriver ticket, and some who, clearly, were going to vote for Nixon, but few expressly said this.  Those that did were mostly conservative Southerners that were not seeking re-election.  The most prominent active elected Democrats that actively endorsed Nixon were Mayor Sam Yorty (D-Los Angeles) and Mayor Frank Rizzo (D-Philadelphia); both would later become Republicans.  Most of the "Democrats for Nixon" were FORMER elected officials and former LBJ appointees.

There were some Republicans that didn't endorse Goldwater in 1964.  George Romney, William Scranton, Jacob Javits, and Nelson Rockefeller come to mind.  They weren't run out on a rail right away, but they were all pre-empted by Nixon (who DID campaign for Goldwater) in 1968.  Most of the Democrats that endorsed Goldwater were Southerners, many of whom would ultimately switch parties.

I guarantee that SOMETHING will happen to EVERY major elected Republican that doesn't back Trump.  It may be a primary.  It may be stripping them of cushy committee assignments in the Congress.  But these guys will pay a price, and none of the #NeverTrumpers will ever be on a GOP national ticket.  Period.  There's a reason Rand Paul isn't a #NeverTrumper; he's learned from history.

The big question for the GOP after Tuesday will be who pays the price - those who opposed Trump or those who didn't. I don't think it's safe to assume it's the #NeverTrump folks who will be getting the boot. Needless to say it will be very ugly. Reince Priebus will hand in his resignation if he knows what's good for him.