Bill Weld, one of three Republicans hoping to topple President Trump as their party’s 2020 standard-bearer, insists he can beat the White House incumbent in New York, where he spent part of his legal and business career.
The governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, who left the GOP in 2016 to become former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson’s running mate on the Libertarian Party’s ticket, in April launched a long-shot bid to oust Trump.
But unlike Republican rival Mark Sanford, who acknowledges the shortcomings of his campaign while Trump remains popular with the GOP base and the establishment seeks to limit some primary contests, Weld exudes confidence.
Weld’s strategy hinges on “broadening” the New Hampshire electorate “beyond members of the Republican state committee and their close colleagues” who back Trump “100%,” the 74-year-old told the Washington Examiner. He needs to reach “New England Republicans” who “very broadly are fiscally conservative and socially open and supportive” like him, he added.
“Trump people not so much. They’re the social equivalent of the Democrats’ ‘nanny states,’ he said. “They want to tell people what to do with self-regarding conduct, such as whether to have a child, or what to do about their religion. It’s just an anathema to me, and I think it’s an anathema to most New England Republicans.”
Based on that calculus, Weld’s betting on New England and a slew of what he calls “cross-over states,” which all go to the polls by Super Tuesday, next March 3.
“I will strongly contest New York and California in the primary. I would never contest them in the final, strongly because you’re not going to win them against a Democrat. But I think I could win either of those states against Mr. Trump in the primary,” he said.
Following a quieter start to his efforts, Weld seems to have upped his presence on the campaign trail after Sanford and former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh entered the race over the summer. Sanford’s the ex-South Carolina governor and congressman who famously claimed to be hiking on the Appalachian Trail, even though he was actually with his mistress in Argentina. Walsh is a tea party alumnus who once pushed birtherism during the Obama administration and hosted a radio show until August when his program was axed.
But Weld hasn’t gone through the process unscathed, earning sharp rebukes for using an MSNBC appearance to suggest Trump had committed treason over the Ukraine-Biden affair.
“Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election, it couldn’t be clearer, and that’s not just undermining democratic institutions,” said Weld, a Ronald Reagan-appointed U.S. attorney who later headed the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “That is treason. It’s treason, pure and simple. And the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death. That’s the only penalty.”
Weld will likely focus his attacks on Trump, trying to capitalize on his appeal with centrist Republican and independent millennials and women to undermine the president. An obstacle? Democratic candidates like entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
“Well, definitely, cross-over with Yang. He’s a smart cookie,” he said.
Speaking of Democrats, Weld indicated his openness to endorsing any Trump challenger should he fail to clinch the nomination: “I wouldn’t rule out the Libertarians, I wouldn’t rule out Joe Biden or another Democrat. I just don’t know at this point.”
In the meantime, however, he’s concentrating on weakening Trump during the primary season.
“A win is only a win, so anything short of winning the nomination is not winning. If you said I had a big impact in New Hampshire or elsewhere and contributed to Mr. Trump not being re-elected, that would be a positive achievement but it would not be a win,” he said.
