I guess the general assumption out there is that everyone on the Republican side is falling in line behind Donald Trump. The reality, however, is a little more complicated. Today, Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana endorsed Trump – which shockingly made him only the 12th sitting member of Congress to formally endorse Trump.
How anemic is Trump’s support among elected GOP officials? Well, Jeb Bush – who quit the race prior to Super Tuesday, still has more formal Congressional endorsements than Trump, even if you subtract all the members of Congress who subsequently endorsed someone else after Jeb Bush dropped out.
Obviously, if you went around and asked those people who still count as Jeb endorsers whether they endorse Trump, many (or most?) of them would grudgingly say yes. But they haven’t yet, and haven’t been in any rush to issue any statement at all that they plan to endorse him. And that goes for the people who still count as Rubio or Kasich or Cruz endorsers.
Team Trump is selling the narrative that everyone is falling in line behind Trump – and while there aren’t many Republicans who have gone full Ben Sasse, there also are almost none who have gone full Jeff Sessions, either. There’s still a tremendous amount of skittishness about publicly associating with Trump – for some weird reason.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member