As the 2020 election season enters its early stages with President Trump’s approval ratings taking a further beating from the protracted partial government shutdown, we’re starting to see more articles about the potential for a primary challenge to Trump.

I am generally supportive of the idea of primary challenges against incumbents and cheered when many liberal Republicans were taken down in primaries during the Tea Party era. I also think even losing primary challenges can be useful in furthering a specific idea or putting pressure on an incumbent. A good example of this is Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who became much more reliably conservative in the run-up to his 2012 re-election race, out of fear that he was at risk of losing the Republican nomination without bolstering his right flank.