#NeverTrump GOP endorsements LATEST: Graham and Lee voted McMullin

[Mr. Morden]

Doesn't look like Mike Lee is going to jump on the Trump train any time soon:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/never-trump-republicans-standing-firm/article/2601631

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Also, the Washington Times recaps who several #NeverTrumpers are planning to vote for:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/sep/6/never-trump-republicans-weigh-how-or-whether-to-vo/

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[Mr. Morden]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/20/the-ricketts-family-was-a-big-backer-of-nevertrump-now-joe-ricketts-is-supporting-trump/?postshare=6481474346318966&tid=ss_tw

Joe Ricketts originally #NeverTrump is now supporting Trump

Wait, did Ricketts ever actually say he wouldn't vote for Trump in the general election?  If not, then he wasn't #NeverTrump.  #NeverTrump means you won't back him in the general election, not just that you oppose him in the primaries.

[Mr. Morden]

Former HHS Secretary Louis Wade Sullivan endorsed Clinton:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/louis-w-sullivan-hillary-clinton_us_57cf06dee4b06a74c9f0cf74

Bush 41 supposedly told a group of ~40 people that he intends to vote for Clinton, but he won't actually confirm that on the record:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/20/politics/george-hw-bush-hillary-clinton/index.html?adkey=bn

Not sure what category to include him in then, as he won't actually go on the record with this information.  Sources who were there say he said it, but he won't confirm that.  Thoughts?

[Mr. Morden]

Both Cruz and Fiorina have said in recent days that they'll vote for Trump.  Of course, neither of them ever ruled it out in the past, they were simply noncommittal.  So they weren't listed in the list in the OP, which remains unchanged.  I think with regard to Trump's primary opponents who have not yet said they'll support him, we're down to:

Bush
Graham
Kasich
Pataki

And for US Senators, the ones who are left who have not said that they'll support Trump are:

Collins
Flake
Graham
Heller
Kirk
Lee
Murkowski
Sasse
Toomey

Some of those folks are #NeverTrump, as they've ruled out supporting him.  Others have left open the possibility of backing him, but haven't indicated their support as of yet.  Will any more decide to endorse him between now and November?

[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?

[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.

[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

[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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[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/

[Mr. Morden]

So earlier in this thread, it was mentioned that 12 of Trumps opponents have endorsed him, and the ones who haven't are Bush, Kasich, Pataki, and Graham. Have either of those four endorsed Trump yet?

Not unless it happened quietly and I missed it.

[Mr. Morden]

Some of them are already mentioned at the #NeverTrump thread but there are also many new names.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/thirty-former-gop-congressmen-come-out-against-trump-n660906

Checking against my existing list, it looks like most of these names are new.  I count 21 new names that I've now added to the list in the OP:

former Rep. Steve Bartlett (TX)
former Rep. Bob Bauman (MD)
former Rep. Jack Buechner (MO)
former Rep. Tom Campbell (CA)
former Rep. Bill Clinger (PA)
former Rep. Tom Coleman (MO)
former Rep. Geoff Davis (KY)
former Rep. Mickey Edwards (OK)
former Rep. Harris Fawell (IL)
former Rep. Ed Foreman (TX, NM)
former Rep. Amo Houghton (NY)
former Rep. Steve Kuykendall (CA)
former Rep. Jim Leach (IA)
former Rep. Pete McCloskey (CA)
former Rep. Mike Parker (MS)
former Rep. Tom Petri (WI)
former Rep. John Porter (IL)
former Rep. Peter Smith (VT)
former Rep. Edward Weber (OH)
former Rep. G. William Whitehurst (VA)
former Rep. Dick Zimmer (NJ)

[Mr. Morden]

I am still waiting for what Ljube promised would happen: a flood of #NeverTrump Republican politicians changing their minds and endorsing Trump.  Hardly any of them have done so.  The #NeverTrump list is much longer now than it was when Trump clinched the nomination.  I thought that wasn't supposed to happen? 

[Mr. Morden]

Lee just did the same.  Republican Party of Utah abandoning Trump.

Lee never endorsed Trump in the first place though.  So he didn't withdraw anything.  However, it looks like Lee now says Trump should drop out, which goes beyond simply not endorsing.

[Mr. Morden]

How many prominent GOP women still support him? By the end of the weekend it might be just Palin and she is nuts.

At the moment, I think the 6 female Republican senators are split: Capito, Ernst, and Fischer all back him, while Ayotte, Collins, and Murkowski don't.  Though Capito has sounded rather unenthusiastic about supporting him in the past, so maybe she'll unendorse over this.  Among governors, I think Fallin and Haley support him, while Martinez doesn't.

[Mr. Morden]

It'll take me some time to sort out the updates to the list in the OP.  The issue is that there are different categories here:

1) People who are #NeverTrump, as in they're not voting for Trump in November.
2) People who haven't (yet) said they'll back him, but haven't ruled out deciding to back him by election day.
3) People who say he should drop out in favor of Pence.  At first glance, you might think this implies #1, but saying that the party would be better off if Trump quit isn't the same as saying that you still won't vote for him if he doesn't quit.

In any case, I'm only tracking people in category 1, because otherwise the list is too long to keep track of.

[Mr. Morden]

For people that want maps, someone is keeping a google doc:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/15MudzswjU45efqvus21goEqtknbsfy9w2CLaWvOa_z0/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0

Pretty good list, though it only seems to include people who've put out statements on this in the last ~24 hours.  So it doesn't include folks like Charlie Baker, who's been #NeverTrump for many months, and hasn't added any new reaction to the public record following the events of yesterday.  So you'd need to combine this list with the list in the OP of this thread, if you want to capture all the #NeverTrump people.

[Mr. Morden]

Red: Republican Gov
Black: Republican Gov not endorsing Trump or calling for him to step down.


Red: 2 Republican Senators
Orange: 1 Republican Senators
Black: Both Senators do not endorse.
Black line: One Republican Senator does not endorse.


Red: Republican Rep does not endorse.

Quickly put this together so if you see some I missed, let me know!

Governors: Haslam and Martinez have also not endorsed Trump, AFAIK.
Senators: Heller and Toomey have also not endorsed Trump, AFAIK.

[Mr. Morden]

I thought Lindsey Graham has also not endorsed?

Yeah he should be on that list as well and so should Sasse

Heller and Toomey also haven't endorsed him.

And Fischer. That makes 11 out of 54?

Thune as well, so 12 by my count.

Thune said he wants Trump to drop out, but has he said he won't back him anymore if he *doesn't* drop out?

[Mr. Morden]

Red: Republican Rep does not endorse.

Quickly put this together so if you see some I missed, let me know!

I think you're missing a slew of names on the House side (e.g., Justin Amash, Kay Granger, and Richard Hudson).  Remember, the list in the OP of this thread is only people who are #NeverTrump, as in they explicitly said they won't back Trump.  But there are dozens of GOP members of Congress who have never endorsed him, who either said they were still thinking about it, or they would endorse him under certain conditions that haven't been met yet, or they took a vow of silence on the presidential race.  Look at this list compiled in July:



There are 60 names in categories 5, 6, and 7, and those would all count as "haven't endorsed".  Granted, that list is from July, and many of these people did subsequently endorse, but I guess you'd have to go through them one by one to check.  That's why tracking all the non-endorsements in the House is a big project.

[Mr. Morden]

Is the OP still being updated, or does anybody have a comprehensive list of all of the Trump un-endorsements and #NeverTrumpers? I'd love to make a map of the House members.

I'm going to update the list in the OP eventually, but I don't have time to keep up with it all.  As it stands the OP list is what existed pre-hot mic episode.

EDIT: Also the OP list is people who are actually #NeverTrump.  But as I said upthread, there are dozens of members of Congress who are #UndecidedOnTrump.  They haven't endorsed Trump, but never ruled out doing so in the future.  There are too many such people to keep track of all of them.

[Mr. Morden]

Flashback: Remember when folks were skeptical of the #NeverTrump endorsements holding up?:

I wonder how many of "never Trump" crowd would eventually fall in line if he's nominated: "well yes, I had some doubts but the most important thing now is to unite and prevent Obama's third term".

[Mr. Morden]

OK, here are all the people I’m about to add to the “#NeverTrump” list in the OP.  As far as I can tell, these people are now saying they won’t support Trump.  That includes folks like Kasich and Martinez, who were already not endorsing him, but still holding out the possibility of an endorsement in the future.  They’ve now said they won’t vote for him.  (Not sure if Katko or Knight have already been mentioned in this thread, but I think all the others have.)

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (NH)
Gov. Robert Bentley (AL)
Rep. Bradley Byrne (AL)
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (UT)
Rep. Barbara Comstock (VA)
Sen. Mike Crapo (ID)
Rep. Rodney Davis (IL)
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE)
Sen. Cory Gardner (CO)
Rep. Cresent Hardy (NV)
Rep. Joe Heck (NV)
Gov. Gary Herbert (UT)
Rep. Will Hurd (TX)
Gov. John Kasich (OH)
Rep. John Katko (NY)
Rep. Steve Knight (CA)
Sen. Mike Lee (UT)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (NJ)
Rep. Mia Love (UT)
Gov. Susana Martinez (NM)
Sen. John McCain (AZ)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Rep. Erik Paulsen (MN)
former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN)
Sen. Rob Portman (OH)
former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Rep. Martha Roby (AL)
Rep. Tom Rooney (FL)
Gov. Brian Sandoval (NV)
former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA)
Rep. Mike Simpson (ID)
Sen. Dan Sullivan (AK)
Rep. Ann Wagner (MO)

There are other folks like Thune and Fischer who’ve called on Trump to drop out, but haven’t really addressed what they’re going to do if he doesn’t.  I’m not counting them.

It’s also come to my attention that Bruce Rauner is in the “I won’t tell you who I’m voting for” category now.  Earlier in the year, he said that he’d support the nominee but wouldn’t make a “formal endorsement”.  Looks like he backtracked some time ago, and is now in the camp of “I’m not talking about the presidential race at all, and won’t say who I’m voting for”:

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/rauner-vote-for-trump.html

[Mr. Morden]

What about Bruce Rauner?

Rauner said way back in the spring that he would "support the nominee", but then later seems to have backtracked into the Rick Snyder position....which is that he won't talk about the presidential race, and won't say who he's personally supporting.