The White House floats the idea that Agent Orange will barnstorm for 2018 GOP candidates.
Trump is running out of unimpeachable reasons to remain in the WH, so his geniuses think keeping him on the road and distracting him with reasons to play more golf still helps the GOP. GOP governors worry about the effect a POTUS disinterested in actual governing might have on a now much angrier electorate.
At some point Trump might not be the GOP’s lead salesman, especially since the Nikki Haley defection on his sexual conduct and the possibility that SoS Tillerson’s replacement plus a new CIA director, could be the eventual prohibitive favorite to lead the 2020 ticket.
In that scenario, some have suggested Pompeo becomes SoS and Tom Cotton goes to head the CIA. Typical GOP thinking in terms of regional ‘Southern Strategy’ and staunching the now bleeding desperation of #TrumpRussia.
Tom ‘Lando’ Cotton:
Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton might be just the thing for voters who would like Donald Trump in a smoother, if awkward, package, like “When a Man Loves a Woman” rendered by Michael Bolton instead of Percy Sledge
In isolating the racial elements of the recent Alabama vote, while the primary aspect was about energizing the African-American vote, it can also be said that European-American voting suppressed itself, considering the ideological negatives of a GOP candidate well known to the electorate.
Sounds like a familiar formula. The loose variable is the civil unrest that Trump appearances evoke and whether that works for GOP candidates who might not have the Roy Moore tendencies to flaunt firearms and sexual amnesia.
Trump’s political aides have met with 116 candidates for office in recent months, according to senior White House officials, seeking to become involved in Senate, House and gubernatorial races — and possibly contested Republican primaries as well.
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Trump, senior officials said, has shown particular interest in certain races, including Republican senatorial candidate Josh Hawley in Missouri and the possibilities of Senate bids by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida and Gov. Paul LePage of Maine.