By Brent Griffiths | [email protected]
National Republicans may greet their presumptive presidential nominee with trepidation, but strategists and volunteers in Iowa say it is time to unify behind Donald Trump.
“Yes, I’m a Republican, period,” said Joni Scotter, a former Linn County GOP co-chairman who has wooed by many of the presidential candidates before signing on with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “I’m a team player. We work hard to get all Republicans elected, and as a party person, I will work and work.”
Trump’s proclivity for telling it like it is led many of his former Republican challengers to question his temperament when they were in the race. Just this past Mother’s Day weekend, the New York businessman again raised eyebrows by saying that women “get it better than” men.
Jamie Johnson, a former Iowa pastor who served in a leadership role with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign, said it is Trump’s signature style that propelled him above the 16 other candidates who once competed for top of the GOP ticket.
“What voters saw in Donald Trump was authenticity; like it or hate it, it was the real Donald Trump,” Johnson said.
Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee last week when he won the Indiana primary on May 4, knocking Texas Sen. Ted Cruz out of the race. Cruz and his campaign had built up the Hoosier primary as a necessary victory if he hoped to stop Trump before the national convention. Ohio Gov. John Kasich proceeded to end his campaign the next day.
Even after Cruz withdrew the night of the Indiana loss, a number of top Republicans were not ready to embrace Trump and publicly declared so in stark terms.
Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who was a key leader for Cruz among evangelical voters, said he would sign his name in blood as someone who would never support Trump. He then compared a hypothetical embrace of the former star of NBC’s “The Apprentice” to Christians losing the Holy Land during the crusades.
“I won’t congratulate Trump for winning anymore than I’d congratulate Saladin for capturing Jerusalem,” Deace tweeted.
David Yepsen, who covered politics for the Des Moines Register for more than two decades, said these types of reactions are common after a bitter primary fight. After praising Trump early on, Cruz and the businessman exchanged increasingly personal barbs as the GOP field began to narrow. Shortly before the Indiana primary, Trump cited a completely false National Enquirer story that accused Cruz’s father of palling around with future President John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
“After every bitter primary fight in each party, it takes awhile for them to heal,” Yepsen said. “For some people, they can’t stomach the winner, so they do sit it out.”
But Yepsen said many of these Republicans would rather have a President Trump than let Hillary Clinton win. He noted that many supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will face a similar choice in terms of the two candidates.
Despite calls for party unity, the highest ranking Republican in the country, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he is not ready to support Trump at this time. But many of his congressional colleagues are either explicitly backing Trump or saying that they would support the nominee.
Almost all of Iowa’s congressional delegation — excluding Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, and Gov. Terry Branstad have said they would support Trump this fall — even if it is through the lukewarm language of “the nominee” for now.
Before the Feb. 1 Iowa Republican caucuses, Branstad encourage Iowans not to vote for Cruz but declined to endorse a candidate. As the longest-serving governor in American history and someone with extensive ties to many Republicans, the governor’s lobbying on Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s behalf to be the vice-presidential nominee signals an embrace by the establishment.
Longtime Iowa GOP strategist Steve Grubbs said he will wait until the convention to determine whom he will support. The possible matchup of Clinton and Trump, Grubbs said, would pit two deeply flawed candidates — the two would have record high unfavorable numbers for presidential candidates.
“If Trump is the nominee, people like me will probably be there,” Grubbs said.
Correction: In a previous version of this article, it said all of Iowa’s congressional delegation have said they support Donald Trump this fall. However, that is inaccurate. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, will not support Trump and has endorsed Hillary Clinton.
