Dozens of former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to former President Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine U.S. democracy, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions told Reuters.
The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved say.
More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to discuss the breakaway group, which would run on a platform of “principled conservatism,” including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law - ideas those involved say have been trashed by Trump.
The plan would be to run candidates in some races but also to endorse center-right candidates in others, be they Republicans, independents or Democrats, the people say.
Evan McMullin, who was chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters that he co-hosted the Zoom call with former officials concerned about Trump’s grip on Republicans and the nativist turn the party has taken.
Three other people confirmed to Reuters the call and the discussions for a potential splinter party, but asked not to be identified.
Among the call participants were John Mitnick, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; former Republican congressman Charlie Dent; Elizabeth Neumann, deputy chief of staff in the Homeland Security Department under Trump; and Miles Taylor, another former Trump homeland security official.
It's a start. Might reduce the costs ever so slightly for "bigger" fish to join. May not work, of course. The history of 3rd parties in the US is pretty dismal.
But the more the GOP surrenders to the cult at the state and local level, the greater the incentive for principled people at the top to dissociate from the crazies who run the party apparatus.
If you look at what state parties are doing, I'm pretty confident that there are people who will not be able to stomach being in the same room with the toady candidates that these parties put forward in 2022.
From my adopted state, imagine being in the same room with guys like Steve Pearce swearing undying fealty to Trump.
I have conservative friends who touted him as a reasonable guy, once upon a time before he (and the whole party apparatus) drank the Kool Aid. I laughed because I've always thought the guy was an asshat. But I could forgive a difference of opinion about land use policy because, well, it was a normal difference of opinion. We're well beyond that now.
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