“There’s an open question on the right, which is: Can a populist candidate without the populist baggage of President Trump appeal to the Trump voter?” he said. “I think if you’re going to… be a contender, the one thing that you need to prove to these voters is that you’re going to fight.”
Christie and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are the first entries into a “shadow primary” among Republicans to see who could challenge the former president, Wegmann added.
Related Article: Trump Hints at Biden Rematch: ‘You Think I’m Kidding, But I’m … Not’
PHIL WEGMANN: 24 hours before Governor Christie was speaking in Las Vegas, Donald Trump was talking to supporters in Mar-a-Lago, and as we reported in Real Clear Politics, surprise, surprise, the former president says he’s absolutely not kidding about a possible rematch with Biden.
Every Republican who is thinking about a White House bid in 2024, they are confronting the same set of facts as Governor Christie. The difference is, that he is laying out in real-time a potential blueprint for how you balance those two things.
His takeaway is really simple. It’s one, go your own way because you don’t know what the former president is going to do. And, two, fight for your message and focus on the future, but do it the way that Glenn Youngkin did in Virginia, without making people’s ears hurt. You know, if Christie does hop in the race, we could be pointing back to that speech, and this might be an important milestone.
NEIL CAVUTO: Who else would do something like this? In other words, run whether or not theme president takes another stab at it?
PHIL WEGMANN: There are a number of Republicans thus far who have said that if the former president is going to run, they won’t. Certainly, there’s a long list of GOP contenders.
There’s a significant bench on the right currently, but they don’t know whether or not they can go up against the former president.
On top of that, there’s an open question on the right which is: Can a populist candidate without the populist baggage of President Trump appeal to the Trump voter? And I think that if you’re going to answer that question and be a contender, the one thing that you need to prove to these voters is that you’re going to fight.
You know, even if Trump wasn’t their preferred candidate, I don’t think we’re going to go back to the days of Republican candidates who wear mom jeans, right? So you have to prove that you’re going to fight.
NEIL CAVUTO: Where does Ron DeSantis fit into that? Another prominent name.
PHIL WEGMANN: Absolutely, DeSantis has used the media as a stand-in, he’s pushed back against them any chance he’s gotten and he has also been not afraid to push back against the Biden administration, whether it’s on education or vaccine mandates. I think what we’re seeing right now is the beginning of a sort of shadow primary, where voters are looking at candidates on the right.