MANCHESTER, N.H. — Imagine Donald Trump emerges victorious from New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. As he takes the stage to deliver his victory speech, who, besides his loyal supporters, does he thank?
Some suggest the New York billionaire would owe a debt of gratitude to his biggest foe: the GOP establishment.
For months, Trump has foiled repeated attempts by the establishment to tarnish his image as a champion for America’s middle class and paint him as sympathetic to big government policies. Now, with a narrower Republican field and the Feb. 9 primary fast approaching, the four establishment-friendly candidates who previously targeted him have begun vigorously attacking each other.
And if anyone’s to benefit from the embattled establishment lane, it’s Trump.
On any given day, New Hampshire’s commuters and stay-at-home spouses are confronted with dozens of negative campaign ads when they tune into the radio or turn on the TV: Bush vs. Kasich, Bush vs. Rubio, Rubio vs. Christie and so on and so forth. Then come the direct insults at town halls, campaign rallies and in media appearances.
“You heard Marco Rubio a few weeks ago saying he doesn’t go to the Senate and he doesn’t vote anymore because his vote doesn’t really matter,” Christie told voters at a recent town hall. Christie, who himself has been criticized for neglecting his duties as governor, suggested that Rubio should “quit” serving in the upper chamber.
“For a certain portion of the electorate, there are people who are just sick of that angle of politics and they’re going to tune it out and go, ‘Screw you guys, I’m going to go with Donald Trump,'” says Drew Cline, a steadfast Rubio supporter and the former editorial page director of the Union Leader.
Rubio, who’s in second place behind Trump in state-level polls, hurled the kitchen sink at Christie during two of his campaign stops here on Friday, hitting Christie for supporting the Supreme Court appointment of outspoken liberal judge Sonia Sotomayor and for “writing personal checks” to Planned Parenthood. Christie, not one to stand silent, fired back on the stump in Iowa, claiming Republicans would encounter buyer’s remorse if they elected another first-term senator to the Oval Office.
“The bickering between these candidates, it kind of takes the focus off Trump,” Matthew Boehl, an undecided first-time voter, told the Washington Examiner outside a Rubio town hall at New England College.
“At this point, it might be smarter for them to be attacking him,” he added, acknowledging Trump’s front-runner position and unrivaled poll numbers in the Granite State.
“Every time I see them taking little digs, no matter which candidate it is, to me, that just doesn’t help anybody,” said a retired employee of Decco Inc., where Rubio held a town hall last Thursday, who declined to be named. “It’s a dirty thing in politics, and these guys all want to rid themselves of the politician image, don’t they?”
According to local political strategist Mike Dennehy, Rubio, Christie, Jeb Bush and John Kasich are “so preoccupied with each other,” they’re allowing Trump to continue campaigning and amassing support across the state without so much as a scratch.
“The problem I see with those four in particular is they’re all, in one way or another, going after each other,” Dennehy said. “So I just think it ends up being a wash and no one moves.”
“They’re stuck,” he added, predicting that the four establishment candidates will likely “tie for third place around 8, 9 or 10 percent.”
While the establishment candidates continue to spar, Trump’s campaign has slapped more “Make America Great Again” bumper stickers above New Hampshire license plates and turned their attention to expanding the businessman’s ground game.
“It’s not an easy place for them to be because … he comes to the state and they have thousands of people, they then have to try to follow up with and pull into their organization. But they definitely have improved their county and town-by-town operation,” Dennehy said, noting that his house “got a call [from Trump volunteers] during dinner time last week.”
In the meantime, as a primary victory for the billionaire inches closer to reality, Cline and dozens of other voters can’t help but wonder: Why aren’t the others hitting him?
“Right to Rise PAC had $100 million and I got a mailer this week attacking Kasich,” he said. “Voters are attracted to [Trump] because they say he’s this outsider and you can show that he’s not. And that’s the angle I don’t know why anybody hasn’t taken.”
