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Attention Washington establishment Republicans, RINOs, right-wing Deep Staters, Never Trumpers and The Swamp: You know how we’re all hoping someone, anyone, would do something, anything about the looming nomination of Donald Trump?
Like Nikki Haley? Like Liz Cheney? Like the woman in Colorado, 60 years a Republican, who sued to remove Trump’s name from the ballot? Like Mitt Romney, who told reporters, in the most Mitt Romneyish way possible, that “I must admit that I find sexual assault to be a line I will not cross in the people I select to be my president”?
I know you have noticed that bad things happened in terms of each of those individuals’ futures in the Republican Party. Do you wish there were something you could do without anyone finding out it was you? There is! I am so excited to tell you about it.
Did you know that D.C. has a Republican Party, and that the D.C. Republican Party has a primary? With delegates? It’s true! It starts on Friday — Nikki Haley will be in town — and ends Sunday. It’s at the Madison Hotel, 1177 15th Street NW, and goes from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day. (Overseas and disabled voters can vote by mail.)
Patrick Mara, the chairman of the D.C. Republican Party, tells me it’s anyone’s race — that Haley, Trump or David Stuckenberg could win.
You read that right. I don’t know who he is either, and I read every op-ed that is submitted to The Post. By anyone. Stuckenberg, an Air Force Reserve major and Tampa entrepreneur, has been knocking on doors, Mara says. He’ll have a table at the Madison during the primary election.
There’s no public polling, and it’s tough to predict who of D.C.’s 20,000 or so registered Republicans will turn out to vote. “On either side,” Mara said, “people might just stay home because the national media is telling us this election is over. But since we moved up [the dates, from June], we’re as relevant as we can possibly be.”
Here’s the best part. Delegates are apportioned by the population of the place, not the number of Republicans. So D.C.’s 20,000 or so — Mara’s estimate — control 19 delegates, while Maine’s 300,000ish Republicans vote for 20 delegates.
As demoralizing as it might be to vote Republican in D.C. in a general election, this weekend you’ll have 15 times the power of an equivalent Mainer to determine the next presidential nominee of the party of Lincoln.
I’m right here with you. I am a registered Republican, despite my politics being to the left of President Biden’s. But I registered Republican years ago because of my theory that it would be harder to disenfranchise the District’s nearly 500,000 voters if there was any chance they would ever support Republicans. I’ll let you know as soon as a second person joins my movement.
This is a primary, maybe the only one left, that Haley can actually win. If you want to stop Trump, there’s no better time to start than now. If you nominate Haley, she’ll have a better shot of beating Biden, you’ll never have to worry what’s coming out of Truth Social ever again and you can still be sure the next Republican president will pick a Supreme Court justice grown in a Federalist Society lab.
Maybe losing the D.C. primary this weekend would just be a stumbling block for Trump, a little lost momentum before Super Tuesday. Maybe he’ll take it as a badge of honor that Washington rejects him. And maybe it’s the tiniest possible do-something gesture toward democracy, requiring no actual courage, having no actual effect on anything and you can lie about it later to save your career.
The swamp can drain Trump’s 2024 campaign this weekend
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01.03.2024
Sign up
Attention Washington establishment Republicans, RINOs, right-wing Deep Staters, Never Trumpers and The Swamp: You know how we’re all hoping someone, anyone, would do something, anything about the looming nomination of Donald Trump?
Like Nikki Haley? Like Liz Cheney? Like the woman in Colorado, 60 years a Republican, who sued to remove Trump’s name from the ballot? Like Mitt Romney, who told reporters, in the most Mitt Romneyish way possible, that “I must admit that I find sexual assault to be a line I will not cross in the people I select to be my president”?
I know you have noticed that bad things happened in terms of each of those individuals’ futures in the Republican Party. Do you wish there were something you could do without anyone finding out it was you? There is! I am so excited to tell you about........
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