Most likely #NeverTrump Republican to run as a third partier?

[Crumpets]

I doubt there will be any high-profile run by a moderate or "true conservative" Republican. But if it were to come to that, say, in a ploy to deny both candidates a majority and throw it to the Republican House, who would be most likely to makes such a ploy?

[Suburbia]

Tom Ridge. Yes, he is a pro-choice Republican. However, he is a statesman and he could do well-better than Romney.

[Mr. Morden]

Justin Amash, based on his cryptic tweet:

https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/727693152170196994

[Mr. Morden]

Also, more likely than a full blown third party candidacy is a last minute loosely organized write-in campaign.

[Fargobison]

I wish Ben Sasse would do it...

[Illiniwek]

Nobody on this list is going to deny Hillary a majority and send the race to the house. A third party run could only help boost down ballot races by giving conservatives a reasonable candidate at the top of the ballot.

Justin Amash, based on his cryptic tweet:

https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/727693152170196994

I don't necessarily believe he is going to run, but I sense a challenge coming from the Cruz, Paul, and freedom caucus circles.

[Crumpets]

We should twitter bomb some of these people to try to draft them. Heck, we're all from different areas and political backgrounds, obviously they'd have a huge base of support if they ran!

[Illiniwek]

I wish Ben Sasse would do it...

Sassy Sasse seems to be like a real FF!

[Crumpets]

Nobody on this list is going to deny Hillary a majority and send the race to the house. A third party run could only help boost down ballot races by giving conservatives a reasonable candidate at the top of the ballot.

Justin Amash, based on his cryptic tweet:

https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/727693152170196994

I don't necessarily believe he is going to run, but I sense a challenge coming from the Cruz, Paul, and freedom caucus circles.

Which would be pretty ironic given the amount of overlap between #RONPAUL2012 And #TRUMPMAGA.

[Figueira]

Charlie Baker, with Glenn Beck as his Vice President. That would be a winning ticket.

[standwrand]

Justin Amash, based on his cryptic tweet:

https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/727693152170196994

what the heck is this supposed to mean? I love it, but c'mon, man

[Illiniwek]

Charlie Baker, with Glenn Beck as his Vice President. That would be a winning ticket.

Hahahahah why would they ever run together???

[Mr. Morden]

Justin Amash, based on his cryptic tweet:

https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/727693152170196994

what the heck is this supposed to mean? I love it, but c'mon, man

I don't know, but I think it's worth pointing out this:

Because I only started this thread a few weeks ago, I'm still catching up on news from months ago.  E.g., in February, Justin Amash sounded like someone with presidential ambitions:

http://rare.us/story/would-justin-amash-run-for-president/

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I'm assuming he intended that to mean that he'd run in the Republican presidential primary in either 2020 or 2024, but you never know...

[Kingpoleon]

A Sasse/Whitman ticket has the most ideological diversity.

[Indy Texas]

Justin Amash, based on his cryptic tweet:

https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/727693152170196994

How that would end:

"Amash? What is that, Pig Latin for HAMAS? Sad."
-@realDonaldTrump

[user12345]

I wish Ben Sasse would do it...

His tweets from the past few hours have been very very strong against Trump. Damn. He hates him more than a lot of Dems I know.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Well, Alan Keyes actually has his own party, so he kind of wins this by default.

[President Johnson]

LOW ENERGY MITT.

[standwrand]

About Romney:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/05/scott_brown_mitt_romney_thinks_trump_will_beat_clinton

but obviously, Scott Brown in clueless, anyway

[Mr. Illini]

Probably Mitt. He's wanted it badly for a long time, despises TRUMP, and has already butted in with his speech in Utah.

[Crumpets]

Don't know if this has already been posted somewhere, but:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/conservatives-against-trump-third-party-challenger-222861?cmpid=sf

[Lyin' Steve]

David Petraeus + Robert Shiller would be a damn good try.

Petraeus would run on leadership, integrity, and "I can beat ISIS, you'd better believe it."  Shiller would be "I predicted the housing crash, I predicted the flash crash last year, and if I'm in the White House, I'll prevent anything like that from happening again."

Run on safety and security.  Appeal to social moderates/conservatives with calm, low-key talk of "keeping our social fabric solid" or something like that with the distinction drawn with Hillary's appeals to transgender issues and Black Lives Matter.  Appeal to smart people by going into extreme detail on military and foreign policy (Petraeus) and economic and domestic policy (Shiller).  Adopt many of Trump's positions without going so extreme.  Kick out illegal immigrants, with exceptions for crime-free families and people who have been here a while, but talk up the "smart wall" of drones and machines, rather than building a big, dumb wall.  Don't ban muslims, but ban immigration of people in ISIS-controlled areas and intervene to arm and protect the migrants.  And so on and so forth.

No idea if Shiller is willing to run with the Republicans, he doesn't appear to have any sort of political allegiance.

[pho]

Romney is probably the only one with enough day one infrastructure to even have a prayer of getting on the ballot in enough states.

[Orser67]

I think Sasse makes the most sense. As a Senator from Nebraska, he probably has little chance of ever winning the Republican nomination under normal circumstances. A third party run could be a high-risk move, but history could vindicate him for going against Trump, which could in turn make him a big enough figure to contemplate running for the nomination at some point in the next 25 years. It helps that he isn't up for re-election until 2020.

[Ronnie]

Well, Alan Keyes actually has his own party, so he kind of wins this by default.

Alan Keyes is so right wing that he makes Ted Cruz look like a communist.