GOP contenders if Trump doesn't run for re-election

[UWS]

Rubio could do it and win

[Lechasseur]

Rubio could do it and win

Rubio is finished. He's not running for president again and if he does he'll basically be like the Rick Santorum of 2020 or 2024.

Assuming he isn't implicated in anything, I think the party rallies around Pence as the quasi-incumbent with only token opposition at the most.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Probably Nikki Haley.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Mike Pence
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
John Kasich
Tom Cotton
Rick Scott
Brian Sandoval
Eric Greitans
Sarah Palin
Jeff DeWit

LoL I needed that laugh today. Thanks

[OSR STANDS WITH PALESTINE]

I would love to see Ben Sasse run, maybe Tom Cotton. Bob Corker

[Rjjr77]

Rubio could do it and win

Rubio is finished. He's not running for president again and if he does he'll basically be like the Rick Santorum of 2020 or 2024.

I mean he ran one of the better campaigns in the whole thing, no trump he's probably our president right now. It's hard to say he's done...

[JoeyOCanada]

Rubio, Cruz, Pence, etc.

The usual suspects really.

[Mister Mets]

I'm figuring this would be Trump deciding to serve a full term, so Pence isn't quite an incumbent, although it'll be close.

Pence would probably be as well-positioned as George W Bush was in 2000, but I think some others would still run.

I could see Cruz running on Pence's right, Kasich running as an Anti-Trump moderate, and at least one person running as a Trumpish populist (Sarah Palin? Anthony Scaramucci?) A Ben Sasse might run as a candidate offering new solutions.

My guess is Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Rubio wouldn't run, because their support would overlap too much with Pence. Nikki Haley would have to give up the UN Ambassador role that also positions her as an ideal running mate for Pence, so she'd probably stay put.

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

It would be very difficult for a non-Trump Republican to win in 2020.

Only Mike Pence (or MAYBE Paul Ryan) could do it.

I think Pence and Cruz would have a much easier time winning in 2020 compared to Trump, assuming that this is Trump voluntarily stepping down.  Assuming the economy is doing well, they could tout the positives of the administration without many of the negatives that have to do with Trump's personality.

[Ronnie]

It would be very difficult for a non-Trump Republican to win in 2020.

Only Mike Pence (or MAYBE Paul Ryan) could do it.

I think Pence and Cruz would have a much easier time winning in 2020 compared to Trump, assuming that this is Trump voluntarily stepping down.  Assuming the economy is doing well, they could tout the positives of the administration without many of the negatives that have to do with Trump's personality.

Honest question: is Trump the type who would voluntarily step down from anything, under any circumstance?

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

It would be very difficult for a non-Trump Republican to win in 2020.

Only Mike Pence (or MAYBE Paul Ryan) could do it.

I think Pence and Cruz would have a much easier time winning in 2020 compared to Trump, assuming that this is Trump voluntarily stepping down.  Assuming the economy is doing well, they could tout the positives of the administration without many of the negatives that have to do with Trump's personality.

Honest question: is Trump the type who would voluntarily step down from anything, under any circumstance?

Well, I could easily see health problems leading him to decline to run.  He could also get tired of the job or have other issues that prevent him from seeking reelection.  At his age, it's a real factor not to be discounted.

[mcmikk]

Chris Sunununu

lol

[TheSaint250]

1. John Kasich
2. Ben Sasse
3. Tom Cotton
4. Mike Pence
5. Marco Rubio
6. Ted Cruz
7. Jeff Flake
8. Scott Walker

[mcmikk]

If it wasn't for a certain incident, I would have thought Susana Martinez would have been a strong contender. A high-energy Hispanic female 'moderate' with two terms of Blue State governorship under her belt.

What incident, exactly? Maybe I'm out of the loop.

[HisGrace]

It would be very difficult for a non-Trump Republican to win in 2020.

Only Mike Pence (or MAYBE Paul Ryan) could do it.

I think Pence and Cruz would have a much easier time winning in 2020 compared to Trump, assuming that this is Trump voluntarily stepping down.  Assuming the economy is doing well, they could tout the positives of the administration without many of the negatives that have to do with Trump's personality.

Honest question: is Trump the type who would voluntarily step down from anything, under any circumstance?

The knee jerk is that he'd never resign, but ultimately if it would be more embarrassing for him to stay on than quit (either due to impending impeachment or an impending landslide defeat with his approval ratings down in the 20's) he might resign or decline to run. That's pretty much why Nixon resigned. 

It's also possible the job is way more difficult than he thought and that he's miserable right now.

[HisGrace]

I think it'd be a Kasich/Cruz showdown. Pence will be discredited along with Trump if it gets to the point where he won't/can't run for reelection. Rubio/Bush/Paul et al were too humiliated by the primaries last time to run again. Ryan could be contender if he wanted to run, but I think he's content being speaker. If he wanted to be president he'd have run in 2016 since it was a much more favorable cycle for Republicans than a Trumpless 2020 would be.

[uti2]

Rubio could do it and win

Rubio is finished. He's not running for president again and if he does he'll basically be like the Rick Santorum of 2020 or 2024.

I mean he ran one of the better campaigns in the whole thing, no trump he's probably our president right now. It's hard to say he's done...

All he did was refuse to attack Trump, while Walker, etc. attacked, this caused Trump to hit his competitors early on to their disadvantage. Trump was engaging in character assassinations on his competitors while he kept quiet.

Let's put it this way, it was a Prisoner's Dilemma situation where he was cooperating with Trump while other parties refused to cooperate, as a result, he was a primary beneficiary at the expense of the other parties.

If you want to know why Jeb/Christie/Kasich were so dismissive of him, you need to understand the context. He didn't earn their respect with that kind of opportunistic strategy (even Kasich was hitting Trump early on), and technically, he wasn't in their lane, since he was more conservative.

Without Trump, no one takes out Jeb and Jeb is a force one way or another to the end. Jeb keeps the establishment in line. That fact combined with the reality that Rubio and Trump pretty much had polar opposite bases during the primary suggests that he wouldn't have gotten anywhere without Trump (it's easier to imagine Trump voters going to Walker/Cruz/Christie long before they went to him). The only thing that would've happened for him without Trump is that he would've lost a chunk of the establishment vote he had to Jeb.

Look at the IA debate, Jeb actually won in terms of detailed policy discussion.  Without Trump, there would've been a far greater focus on policy. That's the type of campaign Jeb was prepared for.

To clearly demonstrate this, remember that the reason he barely passed Cruz in SC was due to his tag-team with Trump against Lyin' Ted. What does it say when he was forced to co-opt Trump's attacks to be competitive?

[Kingpoleon]

- Justin Amash
- Ben Carson
- Ted Cruz
- Nikki Haley
- John Kasich
- Mia Love
- Marco Rubio
- Ben Sasse