#NeverTrump GOP endorsements LATEST: Graham and Lee voted McMullin

[Mr. Morden]

Warner added to the list in the OP.

[Mr. Morden]

Since I already mentioned the Senators, here’s the list of GOP governors who have not endorsed Trump, not even offering an “I support the nominee” type endorsement:

Baker
Haslam
Hogan
Kasich
Martinez
Sandoval
Snyder (forgot to include him the last time I gave this list)

Baker and Hogan are #NeverTrump.  Snyder says he won’t comment on the presidential race.  Kasich hasn’t quite ruled out voting for Trump, but has a laundry list of complaints about him that he wants addressed before he’d consider it.  Haslam, Martinez, and Sandoval are all vague about what they want from Trump in order to get their support.  Sandoval in fact did endorse him at one point, but then later withdrew his endorsement (I think at the time of the Judge Curiel controversy.)

So yes, more than 20% of sitting Republican governors do not support the party's nominee for president.  Seems like a healthy party.

Will any of them endorse Trump before election day?

[Heisenberg]

Since I already mentioned the Senators, here’s the list of GOP governors who have not endorsed Trump, not even offering an “I support the nominee” type endorsement:

Baker
Haslam
Hogan
Kasich
Martinez
Sandoval
Snyder (forgot to include him the last time I gave this list)

Baker and Hogan are #NeverTrump.  Snyder says he won’t comment on the presidential race.  Kasich hasn’t quite ruled out voting for Trump, but has a laundry list of complaints about him that he wants addressed before he’d consider it.  Haslam, Martinez, and Sandoval are all vague about what they want from Trump in order to get their support.  Sandoval in fact did endorse him at one point, but then later withdrew his endorsement (I think at the time of the Judge Curiel controversy.)

So yes, more than 20% of sitting Republican governors do not support the party's nominee for president.  Seems like a healthy party.

Will any of them endorse Trump before election day?

If anything, I can see Sandoval reversing course (again) and Snyder and Haslam hopping on the train.

[Mr. Morden]

I think Graham will come around. Fmr. Governor Sununu endorsed Trump today by the way.

Why would Graham endorse Trump? What does he have to gain? He isn't up for reelection until 2020, he'll probably get a primary challenger anyway, and there's a good chance he'll retire (and I wouldn't blame him).

Graham signed the pledge, as a former presidential candidate. Priebus said he plans some sort of punishment,

Priebus may very well not be around in 2020.

He might not be chairman, but he won't be dead. An endorsement from a Former RNC chair would be a pretty big boost to someone running against Graham (or Kasich/Cruz/Jeb!)

And what would be his incentives to do this, if he is no longer chairman?

A belief that pledges should mean something.

I really think you're overestimating the extent to which anyone will care about these pledges anymore by December, let alone by 2019.

Assuming Clinton wins, Priebus won't care about this issue anymore in six weeks.  And even if he did, no one will care what he thinks anymore if he's no longer chairman in 2019.

[Indy Texas]

I think Graham will come around. Fmr. Governor Sununu endorsed Trump today by the way.

Why would Graham endorse Trump? What does he have to gain? He isn't up for reelection until 2020, he'll probably get a primary challenger anyway, and there's a good chance he'll retire (and I wouldn't blame him).

Graham signed the pledge, as a former presidential candidate. Priebus said he plans some sort of punishment,

Priebus may very well not be around in 2020.

He might not be chairman, but he won't be dead. An endorsement from a Former RNC chair would be a pretty big boost to someone running against Graham (or Kasich/Cruz/Jeb!)

And what would be his incentives to do this, if he is no longer chairman?

A belief that pledges should mean something.

I really think you're overestimating the extent to which anyone will care about these pledges anymore by December, let alone by 2019.

Assuming Clinton wins, Priebus won't care about this issue anymore in six weeks.  And even if he did, no one will care what he thinks anymore if he's no longer chairman in 2019.

It's not necessarily Priebus that's the issue.

There are people saying that Cruz's impetus for endorsing Trump was to get on the good side of Rebekah Mercer, who was one of his megadonors in the primary but who has very strongly jumped on board the Trump Train since then.

[ag]

I think Graham will come around. Fmr. Governor Sununu endorsed Trump today by the way.

Why would Graham endorse Trump? What does he have to gain? He isn't up for reelection until 2020, he'll probably get a primary challenger anyway, and there's a good chance he'll retire (and I wouldn't blame him).

Graham signed the pledge, as a former presidential candidate. Priebus said he plans some sort of punishment,

Priebus may very well not be around in 2020.

He might not be chairman, but he won't be dead. An endorsement from a Former RNC chair would be a pretty big boost to someone running against Graham (or Kasich/Cruz/Jeb!)

And what would be his incentives to do this, if he is no longer chairman?

A belief that pledges should mean something.

I really think you're overestimating the extent to which anyone will care about these pledges anymore by December, let alone by 2019.

Assuming Clinton wins, Priebus won't care about this issue anymore in six weeks.  And even if he did, no one will care what he thinks anymore if he's no longer chairman in 2019.

It's not necessarily Priebus that's the issue.

There are people saying that Cruz's impetus for endorsing Trump was to get on the good side of Rebekah Mercer, who was one of his megadonors in the primary but who has very strongly jumped on board the Trump Train since then.

Yep, that is what I am hearing as well.

I mean, who is that Priebus? He has no more power over a US senator than over the sun and moon. A major donor is a very different thing, though.

And, BTW, the forum of politics junkies should know those things without them being explained.

[Mr. Morden]

Since I already mentioned the Senators, here’s the list of GOP governors who have not endorsed Trump, not even offering an “I support the nominee” type endorsement:

Baker
Haslam
Hogan
Kasich
Martinez
Sandoval
Snyder (forgot to include him the last time I gave this list)

Baker and Hogan are #NeverTrump.  Snyder says he won’t comment on the presidential race.  Kasich hasn’t quite ruled out voting for Trump, but has a laundry list of complaints about him that he wants addressed before he’d consider it.  Haslam, Martinez, and Sandoval are all vague about what they want from Trump in order to get their support.  Sandoval in fact did endorse him at one point, but then later withdrew his endorsement (I think at the time of the Judge Curiel controversy.)

So yes, more than 20% of sitting Republican governors do not support the party's nominee for president.  Seems like a healthy party.

Will any of them endorse Trump before election day?

If anything, I can see Sandoval reversing course (again) and Snyder and Haslam hopping on the train.

I don't think Snyder will.  He's consistently said that he's not going to comment on the presidential race, so why change that now?  I don't think he's ever going to say who he voted for.  (Or if he does, it'll be years down the line when he's writing his memoirs.)

For some of the others though, I'm not sure.  Even if he won't tip his hand before election day, what does Kasich say on November 9th, when the media asks who he voted for?  Does he refuse to answer?  Or what about Martinez, or any of the others who haven't indicated one way or the other who they're voting for, and might not do so before election day?  Do they break their silence on how they voted once election day has passed?

[Mr. Morden]

A reminder that even most of the Republican members of Congress who've nominally endorsed Trump don't seem to be interested in defending him:

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/781521240230100992

[GeorgiaModerate]

Jeb Bush hints that he's voting for Johnson: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/exclusive-jeb-bush-suggests-voting-gary-johnson-luncheon-article-1.2812065

[Mr. Morden]

A new round of Republican endorsements for Clinton, including three more former members of Congress:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article104952056.html

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[Fuzzy Bear]

I don't know much about Schwarz.  But Sherwood Boehlert and Claudine Schneider were definitely NOT conservative Republicans.  Boehlert was very much a moderate, middle-of-the-road Republican, and Schneider was one of the last members of Congress that could be described as a liberal Republican.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Schwarz was as one term moderate Republican in MI-07, who was primaried in 2006 by the Tim Walberg, with the help of the Club for Growth and Right to Life groups.

[Maxwell]

Schwarz is also fairly moderate (he was beat in a primary because he was insufficiently conservative by Tim Wahlberg)- but I really wouldn't describe Trump as a conventional conservative to where we could dismiss criticism of Republican opposition because they're "RINOs".

[Indy Texas]

I don't know much about Schwarz.  But Sherwood Boehlert and Claudine Schneider were definitely NOT conservative Republicans.  Boehlert was very much a moderate, middle-of-the-road Republican, and Schneider was one of the last members of Congress that could be described as a liberal Republican.

In Mr. Trump's own words, "It's the Republican Party. It's not called the Conservative Party."

[Landslide Lyndon]

I guess this should go here.

https://politicalwire.com/2016/09/29/wsj-editorial-board-member-backs-clinton/

Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board, has endorsed Hillary Clinton:

The end of the election is now in sight. Some among the anti-Hillary brigades have decided, in deference to their exquisite sensibilities, to stay at home on Election Day, rather than vote for Mrs. Clinton. But most Americans will soon make their choice. It will be either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton—experienced, forward-looking, indomitably determined and eminently sane. Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House.

[Mr. Morden]

Jeb Bush says he's not voting for either Clinton or Trump.  But he denies the report suggesting that he's voting for Johnson.  He says Johnson is an option, but he hasn't decided yet:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/29/politics/jeb-bush-gary-johnson-donald-trump/

[Rand]

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff endorses the woman he once investigated during Whitewater.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/10/03/former-whitewater-investigator-michael-chertoff-backs-hillary-clinton/91459540/

[Fargobison]

This election just keeps getting stranger and stranger...

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https://twitter.com/JessicaTaylor/status/783013205350158336

[swf541]

what the ....

[Gass3268]

Ron Paul is probably voting for Jill Stein, says Johnson isn't a true libertarian, lol

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Ron Paul is probably voting for Jill Stein, says Johnson isn't a true libertarian, lol

what even

[GeorgiaModerate]

Ron Paul is probably voting for Jill Stein, says Johnson isn't a true libertarian, lol

So the face of modern libertarianism is voting for a candidate whose platform includes universal single-payer health care, free college for all, free child care, and a guaranteed job at a living wage.  We really have seen it all.

(Not that I think these are necessarily bad things, but they sure ain't libertarian.)

[Oppo]

What! How is Stein a Libertarian!

[Fargobison]

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https://twitter.com/DavidRutz/status/783016298573881345

[izixs]

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https://twitter.com/DavidRutz/status/783016298573881345

I've not thought much of Paul's positions or judgement over the years. Its kind of nice that the evidence continues to support that opinion.

He must really have a beef with Johnson. Or else he's doing it just hurt Clinton some by giving Stein more oxygen than she deserves while just not caring about the libertarians at all. But given how much koolaid he drinks that doesn't seem plausible.