The race for the GOP nomination will, of course, be defined by Trump. His challengers will have to decide how to deal with him without alienating his voters. There are essentially three potential ways of doing this:
- Accept all of Trump’s positions and run as a more competent and electable version of the man on golf cart;
- Build bridges to both the 30 and the 70 percent by accepting most, but not all, of Trump’s positions and hope the big beasts falter; or
- Confront Trump directly, unite the 70 percent, and win over the 30 percent during the general election campaign by talking about the horrors of a second Biden term. In other words, gamble that the 30 percent has nowhere else to go.
DeSantis is on the first track. Haley and the other potential candidates who served under Trump are on the second. If Chris Christie decides to run, he clearly plans to try #3.
I doubt it would work, but you certainly would like to see him give it a go, wouldn’t you?