The South Carolina Republican Party could cancel its marquee presidential nominating contest in 2020 in a move to protect President Trump from any primary challengers.
Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina GOP, said he doesn’t anticipate Trump would face a primary challenge and emphasized that the state party executive committee hasn’t held any formal discussions about the contest, dubbed “first in the South” and usually third on the presidential nominating calendar. But McKissick would pointedly not rule out canceling the primary, indicating that that would be his preference.
“We have complete autonomy and flexibility in either direction,” McKissick told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “Considering the fact that the entire party supports the president, we’ll end up doing what’s in the president’s best interest.”
As Trump’s re-election campaign ramps up, one component of the effort is preparing for possible primary challenges. The president is solid with Republican voters and would almost certainly defeat any intraparty opposition. But incumbent presidents who faced primaries are in greater peril in the general election, a fact not lost on the Trump campaign and the GOP more broadly.
To minimize potential political hurdles for Trump, some state parties could move to scrap their 2020 presidential primaries. Already a long shot, the unavailability of one or more high profile primary contests could further hamstring the odds of any Republican who dares to run against Trump in 2020. There is precedent for this strategy, even when less uncertainty has swirled around the incumbent president.
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The South Carolina Republican Party could cancel its marquee presidential nominating contest in 2020.
https://t.co/NhVW1SRIlS— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 19, 2018
The incipient panic among Trumpists about a possible challenge for the 2020 Republican nomination is striking. https://t.co/7wL6N9u7zb
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 19, 2018
President Trump will be a stronger nominee in 2020 if the process is open. Cancel a primary? Why not cancel all of them? We could do away with the pesky convention too.
Internal party democracy matters. We don’t anoint. We elect. The Soviets anointed – out of weakness. https://t.co/q1pwXxHDpZ
— Ron Nehring (@RonNehring) December 19, 2018
"Tom, tell me again why you argued for voting against the GOP down the line, even at the state level."
Yes, it's a real mystery why I took that position. https://t.co/fb0m41Gq0j— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 19, 2018
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