High profile conservatives serve as surrogates as Trump looks to lock down GOP nomination

USA 19 January, 2024 16:00

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, sporting a white and gold “Caucus Captain” hat, beamed as he marveled about the charming nature of the Iowa caucuses. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was all smiles as she talked to a conservative media host. Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson mingled with guests at the Iowa Events Center. They were all awaiting Donald Trump’s victory speech Monday night – a moment of vindication for the former president’s earliest supporters, who had been in lockstep with him during his most precarious moments in his political career.

They are also part of an army of high-profile lawmakers and conservative figures who have served as his surrogates to pester his opponents, campaign on his behalf while Trump instead chooses to be in and out of court rooms, and argue that the party is uniting around the former president.

Their numbers include Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and Florida Rep. Byron Donalds both of whom have made a point of helping campaign for Trump in early primary states. In their appearances, they act as distractions from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, as well as his most vicious attack dogs.

Additionally, two former Republican presidential candidates have traveled to the early primary states alongside Trump almost immediately after they ended their respective campaigns to defeat him. When entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy ended his campaign on Monday night, he quickly endorsed Trump and then was on the trail in New Hampshire the next day, rallying supporters with the former president. Similarly, after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum dropped out in December, he endorsed Trump and traveled with him in Iowa and to New Hampshire.

This weekend, ahead of the New Hampshire primary, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is expected to campaign alongside the former president.

For many of these surrogates, the chance to prove their loyalty to the former president and put their star power on display could serve as an audition for a potential spot in Trump’s next administration, should he be reelected. Trump has said that he will be very careful in selecting potential administration officials this time around, and is likely to focus on who remained loyal to him and his ideology. One of the first congressional members to endorse Trump, Stefanik’s presence with him on the campaign trail is fueling speculation that he could pick her as his running mate.

So far, Trump, according to his advisers, has been wary about considering who should be a running mate until Republicans pick a 2024 nominee. Still, speculation has endured that someone like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem or Ramaswamy could end up as Trump’s running mate. Trump himself also has floated the prospect of Burgum being in a future Trump administration cabinet.

Wanting to show he’s the ‘presumptive nominee’

Endorsements of the former president were hard to come by after he announced his third presidential bid in November 2022 – and he’s kept track. Trump and those in his inner circle have privately said they view endorsements as a sign of loyalty. In private conversations with his allies, Trump has fumed over certain lawmakers whom he previously endorsed but have yet to return the favor.

But as Trump’s popularity has increased throughout the primary cycle, the former president has enjoyed a growing list of endorsements from former rivals, lawmakers and governors.

“The more successful a campaign is, the more likely a candidate is viewed as winning, the more attracted surrogates are to that campaign,” said Gregg Keller, a longtime Republican strategist who served as the national coalitions director for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign. “I think thoughtful observers have been of the opinion that Donald Trump is more likely to win the nomination than anyone else and therefore it makes easier to get surrogates.”

The Trump campaign has also relied heavily on his surrogates to help them wrangle additional endorsements. Stefanik, for example — one of Trump’s fiercest allies in Congress — has been increasingly whipping House Republicans to get behind the former president. Last year, Stefanik presented her fellow House Republican lawmakers with polling to argue that the former president is a lock for the nomination. She wanted to urge members to endorse him now rather than wait and see how the primary unfolds.

There could be another incentive for Trump as well. Having well-known Republicans fan out and argue for his candidacy helps reinforce his argument that the party is uniting behind him.

“Trump very much wants to show that he’s the presumptive nominee. This thing’s over,” Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist who served as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign manager, said. “That’s why he’s making all these other folks, really pressuring them [to endorse]. When specific people endorse, it’s not like they’re delivering specific votes for Trump, it’s just showing that this thing is over and so the campaign is pushing hard on that, to just starve the other candidates out.”

In any modern day campaign cycle, a presidential campaign on the rise will have surrogates fanning out to rally supporters, offer a headliner in place of the candidate, or attract key interest groups. But some of Trump’s more bombastic backers have been going out of their way to stir the pot on his behalf. Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Lake spent a Sunday at the Soteria Church in West Des Moines, a Baptist church where Bob Vander Plaats – the prominent Iowa social conservative who backed DeSantis – is a parishioner. And in New Hampshire, Ramaswamy took on a familiar role by tearing into GOP rival Nikki Haley, Trump’s most formidable opponent in the state.

In Keokuk, Iowa, earlier this month, Greene panned the rest of the GOP field as knockoffs of Trump.

“He has a four-year proven track record and everyone else is copying his policies. We don’t need to go back to the Bush era; we’re tired of establishment Republicans,” Greene said. She went on to say the other candidates were just “copying” Trump’s policies.

Still, Republican strategists and campaign operatives often lament that surrogates and endorsements aren’t as influential as they used to be. Having a former lawmaker with a long and accomplished resume recite a version of his candidate’s preferred stump speech just doesn’t move voters in the same way, these operatives say.

But firebrands like Greene or Ramaswamy are a different story because they bring their own personality or something similar to Trump’s to the trail.

A Republican strategist and pollster who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the primary and Trump’s surrogates said, “Any surrogate that he has is merely carrying his aura, presence, and persona magnified through them. It’s just people who’s creating a mirror effect of his own messaging.”