Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld has announced he is considering a primary challenge to Donald Trump.
WaPo has the story.
Weld, 73, said he would seek to determine over the coming months if he can raise enough money to continue his challenge of the president. He said he would run on a traditional Republican agenda of fiscal responsibility and provide a stylistic contrast to Trump.
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Weld opened his remarks in the first primary state with an unflinching denunciation of the president — “he acts like a schoolyard bully” — and Republicans in Washington who “exhibit all the symptoms of Stockholm syndrome.”
A party primary challenge to a sitting president almost always helps the opposing party. In this case, any fractions in the Republican party could very well help whoever the Democratic nominee is next year.
Recent history has demonstrated the effect of such challenges: In 1992, President George H.W. Bush faced a troublesome challenge from the right from commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, who embarrassed the incumbent by winning 37 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and fighting Bush until the national convention. The weakened president lost to Democrat Bill Clinton.
Similarly, President Gerald Ford had to fend off a Republican challenge from Ronald Reagan in 1976 before losing in the general election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Given that the National Republican Committee is, in effect, the National Trump Committee, it remains to be seen if Weld would garner sufficient support to raise the money needed. Weld ran as a Libertarian candidate for vice-president in 2016.
Now, the question is: Should Weld claim the Republican nomination, would he be harder to beat than would Trump?