‘It Is the Era of Trump’: How the President Is Remaking the Republican Party President Trump’s critics are leaving the scene, and his successful primary endorsements are bringing in a new crowd by Janet Hook

Posted By on August 27th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/crusade-and-jihad-review-conquest-and-conquerors-1535311504

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—For months after Republican Adam Putnam entered the Florida gubernatorial race, he seemed almost unbeatable. He had a record of government experience and political success, a trove of endorsements, robust fundraising and a solid lead in most polls over his principal rival, GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis.

Then Mr. DeSantis, a vocal defender of President Trump, picked up the president’s endorsement in June, touted it in a new ad, and appeared with Mr. Trump at a campaign rally in Tampa. Mr. DeSantis shot to the lead in the polls.

“The fallout from the president’s visit to Florida was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen,” said Mr. Putnam, the state agriculture commissioner, who has worked ever since to catch up in advance of Florida’s Aug. 28 primary election.

After more than two decades of tension within the GOP between a restive base and its traditional establishment, Trumpism, the archetypal grass-roots movement, is winning.

With the 2018 primaries about to end, all but two of the 37 Republicans Mr. Trump has endorsed for House, Senate and governor during their primary campaigns have won. Mr. Trump has abandoned or undercut the party’s traditional commitment to free trade, fiscal conservatism and a hawkish foreign policy.

Mr. Trump’s most vocal GOP critics in elective office have been defeated in primaries, announced their retirement or gone quiet. No critic was more forceful than Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who died Saturday.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, once a rising star of the party and free-market conservatism, is retiring. Of the 33 House and Senate Republicans quitting Capitol Hill in 2018—not including those running for higher office—just two supported Mr. Trump in 2016 before he became the presumptive nominee. At least five of them didn’t endorse Mr. Trump after he won the nomination.

Mr. Trump, thus far, has retained strong support from Republican voters, giving him leverage to yank the party into his orbit. His involvement in primaries represents a departure from the 2016 campaign, when Mr. Trump often acted more like an independent than a Republican standard-bearer.

“The base wants to know what I want,” Mr. Trump said in an interview. “I’ve always heard all my life that if you endorse somebody, it’s nice to have, but it doesn’t mean anything in terms of points.…I’m raising people.”

Mr. Trump sees his role as mobilizing voters. “It energizes my people much more than it energizes [opponents],” he said.

 

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