GOP May Consider Amending Party Rules To Prevent Primary Challenge To Trump


With just over a year until the Iowa caucuses officially kick off the start of the 2020 presidential campaign, many individuals, pundits, and party leaders are thinking about who might run for office.

And not just on the Democratic Party’s side.

Some on the right are worried that President Donald Trump, facing backlash from within his own Republican Party, could face a challenger in the GOP primaries next year that could weaken him in the general election. It’s to the point right now that members of the Republican National Committee may consider making rule changes within their own party’s charter later this month, according to reporting from the Washington Examiner.

RNC Committeeman Jevon Williams, who represents the Republican Party within the U.S. Virgin Islands, has asked his colleagues to consider historical context when it relates to primaries that sitting presidents, particularly for Republicans, have faced in the past.

“Look, the political history is clear,” Williams wrote in a note to his party’s members. “No Republican president opposed for re-nomination has ever won re-election. Unfortunately, loopholes in the rules governing the 2020 re-nomination campaign are enabling these so-called Republicans to flirt with the possibility of contested primaries and caucuses.”

Williams pointed out that the current situation would be no different.

“While President Trump would win re-nomination it wouldn’t come quick and it wouldn’t be inexpensive,” he wrote. “Any contested re-nomination campaign—even a forlorn hope—would only help Democrats.”

Williams, in his letter, then made the drastic call to change the way things work within his own party.

“Accordingly, I am asking for your support to take the unprecedented step of amending the rules to close loopholes in the re-nomination campaign.”

Some Republicans have been questioning the leadership of Trump as of late, including former Republican candidate for president and Senator-elect Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who penned a Washington Post op-ed earlier this week chastising Trump for failing to provide sound leadership, in his estimation.

“With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable,” Romney wrote in his op-ed. “And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.”

Other Republicans have been more outspoken in their criticisms of Trump. Outgoing Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pennsylvania), who has also been a frequent critic of the president, was recently asked whether he believed Trump deserved to face opposition from within the Republican Party in the form of a primary challenger, per previous reporting from the Inquisitr.

Costello responded in the affirmative. “I think it’s healthy” to have a challenger, he explained.

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