‘Unelectability’ Won’t Defeat Donald Trump in 2024
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As the Republican primary contest gets going in earnest we are going to hear a lot about “electability.”
With spring turning to summer, the field is abloom with challengers to Donald Trump: Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and others. All will doubtless try to make convincing cases for their candidacies, but expect them also to argue in one way or another that the current runaway leader of the pack is simply unable to win a general election.
Mr. DeSantis put it most directly last week. According to the New York Times, in a phone call with donors to a super PAC supporting him, he said: “You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing. . . . Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president—Biden and me.”
Given recent electoral history this pragmatic case against Mr. Trump has a superficial plausibility, but I’m skeptical about the wisdom of the strategy.
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