Trump Starts Off 2024 Bid With Events In Early Voting States

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Former President Donald Trump will kick off his bid for the presidency in 2024 with visits to two early-voting states on Saturday, his first campaign event since launching his campaign more than two months ago.

Trump will deliver the keynote address at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual meeting before traveling to Columbia, South Carolina, to unveil his leadership team at the Statehouse. The states control two of the party’s first three nominating contests, giving them enormous sway over the party’s nominee.

Trump and his supporters hope that the events will show how much support there is for the former president after his campaign got off to a slow start, which has made many people wonder if he really wants to run again. His supporters have recently reached out to political operatives and elected officials to get their support for Trump’s reelection at a crucial time when other Republicans are getting ready for their own expected challenges.

“The gun has been discharged, and the campaign season has begun,” said Stephen Stepanek, chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party and co-chair of Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state.

While Trump remains the only declared presidential candidate for 2024, a slew of potential challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s UN ambassador, is widely expected to launch campaigns in the coming months.

Trump Has Struggled To Rally Support

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, and several members of the state’s congressional delegation are expected to attend the event on Saturday. However, Trump’s campaign has struggled to rally support from state lawmakers, including some who enthusiastically supported him in previous runs.

Some have stated that it is too early to make endorsements more than a year before the primary election or that they are waiting to see who else enters the race. Others have suggested that the party look beyond Trump to a new generation of leaders.

Republican state Rep. RJ May, vice chair of South Carolina’s state House Freedom Caucus, said he wouldn’t attend Trump’s event because he was too preoccupied with the Freedom Caucus’ legislative battle with the GOP caucus. He stated he was open to other Republican candidates in the 2024 election.

“I believe we’ll have a very strong slate of candidates here in South Carolina,” said May, who supported Trump in 2016 and 2020. “I would take a Donald Trump over Joe Biden,” he added.

According to Dave Wilson, president of the conservative Christian nonprofit Palmetto Family, some conservative voters may be concerned about Trump’s recent remarks that Republicans who opposed abortion without exceptions had cost the party critical midterm victories in 2022.

Lots Of People To Attend The Event

“It makes some people in the conservative ranks of the Republican Party wonder whether we need the process to work itself out,” said Wilson, whose organization hosted Pence for a speech in 2021. “You must continue to earn your vote,” he added. Nothing is presumptuous.”

Wilson said South Carolina GOP voters may be looking for “a candidate who can be the standard-bearer not only for now but to build ongoing momentum across America for conservatism for the next few decades,” despite acknowledging that Trump “did some phenomenal things when he was president,” such as securing a conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority.

Gerri McDaniel, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and will attend Saturday’s event, disagreed with the notion that voters were ready to let go of the former president.

“Some in the media claim he’s losing support. “No, he isn’t,” she clarified. “It’s only going to get worse because so many people are angry about what’s going on in Washington.”

The South Carolina event, which took place in a government building surrounded by elected officials, is out of character for a former reality TV star who prefers large rallies and has tried to build a reputation as an outsider. But Trump is a former president who wants to get back into office by comparing his time in office to the current one.

This Rally Has Been Costly For Trump

Rallies are also costly, and Trump, who is notoriously frugal, added new financial challenges by launching his campaign in November — far earlier than many allies had advised. As a result, he is subject to strict fundraising regulations and is prohibited from using his well-funded leadership PAC to fund such events, which can cost millions of dollars.

Officials expect Trump to speak in the Statehouse’s second-floor lobby, an opulent ceremonial area between the House and Senate chambers.

The venue has hosted some of South Carolina’s most significant political news moments, including Haley’s 2015 signing of legislation to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds and Gov. Henry McMaster’s 2021 signing of legislation prohibiting abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy. McMaster has vowed to seek a rehearing after the state Supreme Court recently ruled the abortion law unconstitutional.

Trump’s new campaign had already caused a lot of anger, especially when he had dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who doesn’t believe in the Holocaust, and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has made a lot of anti-Semitic comments. Trump also got a lot of flak for selling digital trading cards that showed him as, among other things, a superhero, a cowboy, and an astronaut.

Criminal Investigations Still Pending

Simultaneously, he is the subject of several criminal investigations, including one into the discovery of hundreds of documents with classified markings at his Mar-a-Lago club and whether he obstructed justice by refusing to return them, as well as state and federal inquiries into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump is the only one who has said he will run for president in 2024, and early polls show that he is the favorite to win the nomination of his party.

Stepanek, who must remain neutral as New Hampshire party chair, dismissed Trump’s slow start, which campaign officials say accounts for time spent putting infrastructure in place for a national campaign.

“There’s been a lot of anticipation, a lot of excitement” for Trump’s reelection in New Hampshire, he said. He claimed that Trump’s ardent supporters are still behind him.

“There are a lot of people who weren’t with him in ’15, ’16, then became Trumpers, then became never-Trumpers,” Stepanek explained. “But the people who backed him in New Hampshire, who helped propel him to victory in the New Hampshire primary in 2016, they’re all still there, waiting for the president.”

SOURCE – (AP)