HOW TRUMP LED GOP FROM 2012 DESPAIR TO 2024 TRIUMPH. The Republican Party was in desperate straits in the weeks following the 2012 presidential election. There were several reasons. One, its losing nominee, Mitt Romney, was a poor candidate whom a significant part of the GOP base, and an even more significant part of the overall electorate, did not want. Two, its opponent, President Barack Obama, appeared to have found the secret to assembling a permanent winning coalition. And three, Republican leaders worried, sometimes publicly and sometimes privately, that the party was on the wrong side of some key issues, especially immigration.

Just four years later, with Donald Trump’s out-of-the-blue 2016 victory, everything changed. Republicans had a strong candidate. The Obama coalition was crumbling. And the GOP, under Trump, began to change positions on some important issues.