Add Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock to the long list of Republican lawmakers who remain skeptical about supporting their party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
“I can’t support Hillary Clinton, and I won’t be, but Donald Trump needs to earn the votes of me and many others,” Comstock told the Washington Post on Friday.
Comstock’s comments follow House Speaker Paul Ryan’s declaration that he’s “not ready” to support Trump until the New York billionaire addresses some of the major concerns Republicans still have about his rhetoric and policy proposals.
The Virginia congresswoman also said she cannot “defend” Trump as she campaigns in Old Dominion’s 10th congressional district to keep her seat in the lower chamber. Comstock is being challenged by local business owner LuAnn Bennett, a Democrat.
“I won’t defend a lot of the things he’s said,” she told the Post.
Comstock, who joins a growing list of Republican lawmakers who will sit out the Republican National Convention in July, declined to explicitly say what it is Trump needs to do to earn her support, just that she’ll be “watching” the businessman as he approaches the general election.
But Trump’s convention manager Paul Manafort warned Republicans earlier this week that Trump is unlikely to “change” between now and November.
“There’s no reason for Donald Trump to change a thing,” Manafort told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. “He just won a historic race against 16 opponents. He’s now the highest vote-getter in Republican history as far as the primary process is concerned, and he beat the field handedly.”
