Friday night, the Alabama Republican Party will host its summer dinner at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa. Some of the discussion around the room will undoubtedly include the current saga involving President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his now-felon associates Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort.
Now that we’re beyond the primary stage of this midterm election cycle, this will be less of a factor in the 2018 go-around of Alabama politics.
However, a word of advice for any Republicans anticipating a run for election or re-election in the next six years: Stick with Trump – at least publicly. You may think he should step aside. You may think he isn’t fit for this office. Just don’t act on it.
Reps. Martha Roby (R-Montgomery) and Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) did not stick with Trump in the late stages of the 2016 presidential election when the “Access Hollywood” tapes came out.
For Roby, if she had stood by Trump, she might have had a little easier time this election cycle. There would have been fewer wannabes on the Republican side thinking her knee-jerk reaction to Trump’s remarks on the “Access Hollywood” tapes would have been a vulnerability.
It remains to be seen how this may impact Byrne, who is said to be eyeing a run for Senate against incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) in 2020. Byrne’s potential GOP challengers may very well use his own words against him.
“It is now clear Donald Trump is not fit to be President of the United States and cannot defeat Hillary Clinton,” Byrne said in an Oct. 8, 2016 statement. “I believe he should step aside and allow Governor Pence to lead the Republican ticket.”
To many voters, calling on Trump to step aside looks like an act of cowardice. When the going got tough, you gave into the conventional wisdom of the media and Trump’s Democratic opponents. You didn’t listen to the voters in your state that voted for him overwhelmingly, first among Republicans in a GOP primary, then later in a general election.
It was the will of the voters. Most Trump voters already know he isn’t the model citizen we traditionally expect from our presidents. This is a different electorate. These are different times. In our democracy, we get the government we deserve, and in Alabama, you better respect that.
If you abandon Trump, your justifications likely won’t be sufficient for your constituents. They may be sufficient for those who write the stories for AL(dot)com, The Anniston Star and the Montgomery Advertiser. The next time you’re a candidate in a competitive Republican primary, your opponent will remind primary voters, which tend to be the more hardcore, what you did regarding Donald Trump.
Your campaign will be on defense. You may even have to go to the president for endorsement on Twitter to bail you out.
Politically, is that worth the risk? And if you should choose to do so, would you not just change your tune should Trump survive to get along (as was the case with Roby and Byrne), but would you continue to oppose the president, even if he were to win your state as the 2020 Republican presidential nominee?
Disavowing Trump may seem bold and heroic and perhaps even the right thing to do. But there will be consequences and those consequences could include your future electability as a Republican in Alabama.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
