SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. — The Kansas Republican Party is likely to cancel its presidential nominating caucuses in 2020, yet another sign of GOP loyalty to President Trump in the event of a primary challenge.
Kansas GOP chairman Kelly Arnold told the Washington Examiner he planned to recommend to party officials that they forego a Kansas presidential caucus, even as some prominent Republicans flirt with launching a long-shot bid to oust Trump in the 2020 primary. Arnold said there are more efficient methods for selecting Trump delegates to the nominating convention in Charlotte.
“I’m going to have conversations with our state committee that that’s probably going to be the direction we should go,” Arnold said Wednesday while in New Mexico for the Republican National Committee winter meeting. “I don’t think [the caucus] is as needed when you have one candidate.”
The Kansas Republican Party may not be the only state affiliate of the RNC to skip a nominating contest in 2020.
In late December, the South Carolina GOP revealed to the Washington Examiner that it could scrap its primary to block the advance of the president’s Republican opponents. A handful of Republicans are mentioned as possible Trump primary challengers, among them former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, second-term Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
The South Carolina Republican Party received some blowback, with critics charging it with trying to rig the president’s re-nomination. Ironically, this accusation was a common Trump refrain when he was seeking the party’s presidential nomination in 2016. But Glenn McCall, the veteran RNC committeeman from South Carolina, said the party was still on track to cancel the 2020 primary.
“No; no,” McCall said, when he was asked directly if he expected the South Carolina GOP to hold a presidential primary next year. Arnold suggested Kansas would likely cancel the caucus to preserve resources. He noted states have taken this approach in the past when an incumbent Republican was running for re-election.
