A month ago, Kansas political voices waited to see if Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would come home and enter the US Senate race. As the Trump impeachment hearings continue though, Republicans attached to the Trump administration find themselves trapped — if they leave to run for office, it can look disloyal to Trump, as though they are abandoning ship. If they stay, they miss out on an opportunity to run for elected office.
The Kansas City Star recently pointed out Mike Pompeo’s status as the candidate the Republicans most want to run in Kansas 2020 Senate race, but beyond that, they all reference him as a potential candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Pompeo remains the top choice of national party leadership to run for an open Senate seat in Kansas in 2020.
He has repeatedly downplayed his interest in the Senate race in public statements, but his multiple trips to Kansas since March have helped fuel speculation of a potential campaign in 2020.
The South Carolina trip could hint at aspirations beyond this election cycle.
Trump has no real loyalty to cabinet members or staff. For many, the cabinet and staff is a place to do the work of the country and advance their own political careers.
Now, with Trump under fire, the question they have is: is it better to stay or to go? Which one has the highest chance of damaging their future? The New York Times asked that:
Mr. Pompeo’s spreading of a false narrative at the heart of the Ukraine scandal is the most striking example of how he has fallen off the tightrope he has traversed for the past 18 months: demonstrating loyalty to the president while insisting to others he was pursuing a traditional, conservative foreign policy. Mr. Pompeo, 55, now finds himself at the most perilous moment of his political life as veteran diplomats testify to Congress that Mr. Trump and his allies hijacked Ukraine policy for political gain — and as congressional investigators look into what Mr. Pompeo knew of the machinations of Mr. Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer.
Defending the president day after day puts Pompeo on the right side of Trump, but potentially on the wrong side of his presidential aspirations in 2024. Meanwhile, leaving the Trump administration in the height of a scandal in your department would make the exit toxic for the administration — it would be seen as taking the fall for the damage done in the State Department.
Republicans have put themselves in a room where their two options are different forms of poison. Must suck to be them.