The vast majority of Republicans in both houses of Congress are backing Donald Trump for president, provided that they don’t have to use the word “endorse” or call the presumptive Republican nominee by name.
It all depends on what the meaning of “endorse” is.
The Washington Examiner called members’ offices and dug through their public statements to determine where Republicans in the House and Senate stood on the controversial billionaire on the verge of wrapping up their party’s presidential nomination.
The good news for Trump is that few are #NeverTrump. Just three GOP senators have flatly said they won’t endorse him, including one who is the subject of a disputed report that he’s not privately encouraging Republican donors to take such a hard line.
In the House, as of Monday only 11 of 246 Republicans have categorically said they won’t endorse. Every member of the House Republican leadership team has endorsed Trump except for Speaker Paul Ryan, who has given every indication an endorsement is more likely than not at some point.
But congressional Republicans aren’t exactly bursting with pro-Trump fervor given how few of them are publicly characterizing their support for him as an endorsement and calling him by name.
The Examiner found that only five of 54 Senate Republicans have explicitly endorsed Trump in this fashion. In the House, it was 38 out of 246. And some of these were less than effusive, as Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has been quoted as saying she was “not exactly” enthusiastic about it.
Six Republican senators and an eye-popping 61 House Republicans haven’t definitively said whether they will support the presumptive nominee. That number includes Republicans like Ryan who are actively considering and moving toward publicly supporting Trump as well as those who have declined to state their intentions.
The largest group in both houses of Congress is Republican legislators who say they support the Republican nominee but have stopped short of using some version of the phrase “I endorse Donald Trump.” According to an Examiner count, this includes 40 of 54 GOP senators and 136 out of 246 Republican members of the House.
This House number adds some context to Ryan’s delicate dance. He leads a lot of people who are supporting Trump and represent districts that voted for him. He also heads a caucus with a large number of Republicans who are clearly uneasy with Trump.
There is no generic Republican nominee, however. Trump is currently less than 70 delegates away from clinching the nomination outright ahead of the Republican National Convention. All 16 of his major opponents have ended their campaigns. Barring something totally unforeseen, supporting the nominee is supporting Trump.
Even some who prefer the “support the nominee” phrasing admit it is a distinction without a difference. Pressing them on this has pushed some of them into the column of more vocally, even if not less reluctantly, endorsing Trump.
That was the case for Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., when he was asked by Chuck Todd on MSNBC if he was ready to “wholeheartedly” get behind Trump rather than simply vow to remain loyal to the party’s nominee.
“I’m not sure what the difference is, but if it makes you feel better, I’m happy to say, ‘I endorse Donald Trump,'” Gowdy replied. “I was a Rubio guy and if Marco had won, I would have expected Cruz supporters and the Kasich supporters and the Trump supporters to support my guy. So my guy lost and when the jury speaks, I’m going to respect the jury. I’m going to support the Republican nominee who is very likely to be Donald Trump.”
Most Republicans in Congress are very likely to support Donald Trump and few currently look like anti-Trump dead-enders. But there’s a lot of soft support on Capitol Hill the presumptive nominee could stand to firm up.
Mariana Barillas, Cassi Pollock and David Wilkes contributed to this report.
