Status: 03.05.2023 09:52
The CPAC was once a must-attend event for any Republican presidential candidate. But this time around, many potential candidates are avoiding the conference – which has become a home game for Trump.
By Julia Kastein, ARD Studio Washington
“We want Trump,” chanted some of his supporters at Washington’s National Harbor Convention Center. The former president is still not there. Instead, your first official challenger has just delivered his speech in the half-empty hall and received half-hearted applause for it. Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations, is calling for a generational change and a fresh start — but she’s having a tough time at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
MDR Logo Julia Kastein ARD Studio Washington
This time around, the most important meeting of conservatives will be dominated even more clearly than in previous years by the Trump family and supporters. Alongside this is the foreign guest speaker Jair Bolsonaro, the so-called “Trump of the Tropics”. Also a former president who does not accept his loss and currently lives in Florida in voluntary exile. The Brazilian receives the biggest applause when praising the good relationship with Trump – and emphasizes how much he looks forward to his appearance.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro also spoke at the CPAC. His successor, the leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has been in office since January of this year. Image: Portal
Trump’s Well-Known Recipes
For Trump, CPAC is therefore a home game: for more than an hour and a half, the public hangs on his every word, waves Trump hats and signs, and listens to well-known tirades against supposedly Marxist Democrats. For example: “This is the most dangerous moment in our country’s history. And Biden is driving us to irrelevance!”
Without mentioning Ukraine, Trump promises that he is now the only candidate who can still prevent a possible third world war – and very easily: close the border, finish building the wall, deport illegal immigrants, finance China for the corona virus Accountability , draining the alleged swamp in Washington. With known recipes, Trump wants to make America powerful, rich, proud and great again. He doesn’t even mention his competitors.
Pence and DeSantis in competitive event
The CPAC has existed for nearly 50 years. And for a long time no one who wanted to do something with the Republicans could avoid this parade in front of the base. But those times are over, Republican strategist Susan Del Percio told NBC: “The CPAC has been going down lately. It’s not the CPAC anymore. It’s the TPAC, with a T for Trump.”
His main potential opponents didn’t even show up. Ron DeSantis, for example, governor of Florida, who has not yet declared his candidacy – but according to subsequent polls Trump would have more chances of being nominated. Or Mike Pence, former Trump deputy. Instead, they speak at the Club for Growth, one of the most financially resourced Republican organizations. The private meeting with donors a few days ago took place on Trump’s doorstep in Palm Beach. But he was not invited.
Donors keep their eyes open
Many major Republican donors are looking for an alternative. According to media reports, the political network of the influential Koch family, which can support and overthrow candidates with its millions in donations, wants to prevent the renewal of Trump’s candidacy at any cost. His former Vice President Pence put it this way: “There may be a better choice, and I trust Republican voters to make that one.”
This time, however, the Straw Poll, the CPAC’s traditional visitor survey, also made it clear that enthusiasm for Trump is slowly waning, even at the grassroots level. If only slightly. Of the approximately 2,000 participants, 62% want him back as president – seven percentage points less than at the last CPAC in 2022.
Ron DeSantis came second in this unrepresentative poll at 20 percent, and Nikki Haley polled just three percent of the CPAC vote. But the race has just begun.
Republicans looking for a candidate: Trump too toxic?
Julia Kastein, ARD Washington, March 5, 2023 8:20 am