Calling Card: Authoritarian Trumpism.
Factions: PBP (Fiscal/Economy); Reactionary (Other Issues)
Prospects: Like Trump, and unlike some of his likely opponents, he is an orthodox Republican on regressive tax cuts and business deregulation. Unlike Trump, he is intelligent, competent, and single-minded. And where Trump just talked about shooting protesters, Cotton would do it.
Prediction: Contender. Cotton will be more acceptable to business interests than the pure populist DeSantis, and talking about shooting protesters will hit a sweet spot with the base. He’s not as good as some of the others at owning the libs, however. That could be his fatal flaw.