Bill Weld conceded in an interview this week that Republican voters have little appetite for his insurgent primary bid to block President Trump from renomination in 2020.
The former Massachusetts governor did not dispute Trump’s high approval ratings with self-identified Republicans, nor claim a silent groundswell for his long shot campaign. But Weld predicted Trump would grow vulnerable to a primary challenge in the months ahead, insisting his campaign was a key element in softening the political support the president enjoys inside the GOP.
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“A primary challenger can, as Pat Buchanan did, help to create that unrest,” Weld told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” from New Hampshire, where he has campaigned almost exclusively since launching his bid in April. Weld was referring to Buchanan’s challenge of incumbent George H.W. Bush in the Republican presidential primary in 1992. Some blame the Buchanan challenge for sinking Bush in the general election, which he lost to Bill Clinton.
“A year is a long time — 18 months is forever in national politics, and a lot is going on,” Weld said, adding that Trump committed a strategic error when he told House Democrats he would not negotiate on legislation until they stop investigating him.
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“The president is just abdicating his responsibility as president. I think that is so outrageous that I think it’s going to sink in over time in the consciousness of the American people that we can’t have this guy doing this job,” Weld charged.
Trump routinely garners the support of more than 90% of Republican voters in public opinion polls, although his job approval overall remains mired in the low 40s. Some Republicans opposed to Trump had hoped that the report from special counsel Robert Mueller, detailing the federal investigation into the 2016 campaign, might be a tipping point for the president.
But Mueller concluded that Trump did not conspire with Russia to defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Weld is not the first choice to challenge the president among some of the leading Never Trump Republicans. They would prefer Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is considering a bid; former Ohio Gov. John Kasich; or some other higher profile Republican. But Trump’s strength, and the preference for other primary challengers among Republicans who oppose Trump, do not appear to be discouraging Weld.
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The 73 year-old politician sketched out his strategy for winning enough delegates in primaries to earn the right to have his name placed in nomination at the national convention in Charlotte in 2020. And he revealed he would begin campaigning outside of New Hampshire, host of the first primary.
Weld plans to focus on states in New England and the mid-Atlantic, regions he described as a “beachhead” from which to build his underdog campaign because they can be friendly to Republicans like him: conservative on fiscal policy but liberal on social issues. Weld also intends to campaign in states that allow independents to vote in party primaries.
“We’re hiring, we’re staffing up. Within the next couple of weeks I’m going to be in Maryland, in Texas, in California — so we’re starting to travel more broadly,” he said, describing his unfolding effort as “the makings for a very serious challenge.”
In a recent poll of Maryland Republicans, Trump crushed Hogan in a hypothetical primary matchup by a margin of 68%-24%.
[Read: Larry Hogan edges toward 2020 challenge to Trump: ‘I’m taking it more seriously’]
