Pray for President Trump, prepare for President-elect Joe Biden.
That is the position many conservative activists find themselves in as Biden puts together his incoming administration and gets ready to take office, while Trump refuses to concede and continues to contest the election results in multiple close battleground states. But the preparation for Biden is hampered by the fact that these activists can’t say Biden won.
Some believe, or hope, Trump will prevail in his election challenges and remain in the White House. Others are skeptical but don’t want to alienate grassroots supporters who remain convinced Trump won a second term and is a victim of voter fraud. And others still don’t want to anger Trump, who may remain a force in the Republican Party well into 2024 no matter what happens this year.
“We will not be making any statements about a new administration until the election has been certified,” said an official in a conservative organization. “We just have to be patient and let this whole process play out,” said another.
In the meantime, Biden is announcing appointments to key administration posts and starting work on liberal policy initiatives many of these groups oppose. Some sidestep whatever electoral uncertainty remains by saying that Trump’s fate is in the hands of his lawyers and the courts, which now feature many Trump-appointed judges, yet their activism and policy work must go on.
Immigration hawks have already railed against Biden’s proposal to offer a pathway to citizenship to most illegal immigrants within his first 100 days in office. Social conservatives have protested Biden’s choice of Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services. But some activists concede it is difficult to rally supporters against a new administration as they remain hopeful of retaining the existing one.
For conservative activists involved in electoral politics, few things are of greater importance than the pair of Georgia Senate runoff elections next month that will determine which party controls the Senate. The most liberal elements of a Biden administration would be substantially reined in if the GOP holds the majority, but Georgia is one of the states where Trump is alleging fraud, and some of his outside supporters are even attempting to implicate state GOP elected officials.
“Sooner or later, we’re going to need him to inspire a lot of people,” said a conservative operative in the state ahead of Trump’s Saturday night appearance on behalf of Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. “We really need him.” Trump did urge Georgians to tune out allies such as Lin Wood and Sidney Powell urging a boycott of the runoffs.
Acknowledging that some say they are “not going to vote because we’re angry about the presidential election,” Trump told supporters to do the opposite. “If you don’t vote, the socialists and the communists win,” he said. “They win.”
Conservative activists also don’t want to be identified with establishment Republicans who are eager to see Trump go. “Some Republican senators are going to be happy to get back to ‘normal,’” said the Georgia operative.
Republican insiders nevertheless worry about what this will mean for Trump’s long-term influence on the party and the conservative movement.
“More than anything, it all reinforces that he’s going to be in charge of the party for a long time,” said Brendan Buck, who advised House Speaker Paul Ryan. “Georgia is the prime example, but there will always be another Georgia, another situation where the political cost of alienating him is greater than the cost of going along with his crazy ideas. If there was ever a time to turn the page on him, it’s now, but on the contrary, the party is as dependent on his voters as ever.”
It may depend on how long the perception of Trump as a winner, unlike such intraparty rivals as Mitt Romney, endures. “Arizonans have seen this act before in Joe Arpaio,” said Charles Coughlin, a Republican strategist in the state. “If you can’t win Maricopa County, you cannot win a statewide contest.”
Dec. 14 also looms large as a date. On that day, the Electoral College will vote for president and early voting in Georgia begins. The current “safe harbor” date under federal law for states to submit their slates of electors is six days before that, after which Trump’s options dwindle unless he can persuade Republican state legislators in the key states to choose electors who will vote for him.
In the meantime, many conservatives find themselves stuck in a political netherworld where Biden is moving toward taking office — planning for the transition of power has already commenced — and their ally Trump isn’t backing down.
