Former President Donald Trump‘s decisive win in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night has brought fresh attention to the remaining high-profile Republicans on Capitol Hill who have not waded into the 2024 race.
In the lead-up to the primary, which Trump won by 11 points, the former president received a flood of endorsements from statehouses to Congress, but most of Republican leadership in the Senate has up until this point stayed on the sidelines.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has long wanted the party to move past Trump, declined to comment as recently as Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t have any news to make today. We’re all watching New Hampshire with great interest,” he told reporters.
And Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Senate minority whip, has remained neutral since backing Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) unsuccessful presidential bid.
The top two Republicans are unlikely to endorse Trump given their history with the former president. But there is increasing pressure to acknowledge what many Republicans say is inevitable — that Trump will be the 2024 nominee. A number of other members of leadership have been openly weighing whether to back Trump.
The 2020 presidential election, which Trump baselessly claimed was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud, was a turning point in his relationship with McConnell, which was effectively severed after McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
The feud escalated after the midterm elections, with McConnell openly accusing Trump of tarnishing the party’s image in critical swing states and elevating flawed candidates in Senate primaries. In response, Trump pushed Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to challenge McConnell’s leadership, but the Kentucky Republican was comfortably reelected to lead the Senate GOP conference.
Thune also had a falling out with Trump in December 2020 when he criticized efforts by House GOP lawmakers to overturn the results of the presidential election. Trump bashed the South Dakota senator, calling him a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” on Twitter. The former president attempted to lobby Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) to launch a primary campaign against Thune, but she did not.
Thune, speaking with reporters earlier this month, admitted he has concerns about Trump’s strength as a general election candidate.
“General elections are won in the middle of the electorate,” Thune said to reporters. “All that has repercussions for Senate races, too. If we want to get the majority, we need a strong showing at the top of the ticket that translates into some down-ballot success.”
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Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chairwoman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the vice chairwoman of the Republican Conference, have also stayed out of the race.
Ernst did not rule out supporting Trump but so far has declined to do so. She was seen at campaign events for both Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in Iowa, but did not endorse either.
“They’re all trying to get me to endorse, and I do have favorites in the race,” Ernst said in an interview with the Washington Examiner last week ahead of the Iowa caucuses, which Trump won by 30 points. “I think it’s important to just remain neutral for now.”
Capito also said she was not prepared to endorse a couple of weeks ago.
“I’ve said I’m going to wait on that. But we’ll have to see what happens,” she told reporters. “We’ve got New Hampshire coming up … South Carolina.”
Following the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis dropped out, leaving Haley as the final remaining challenger to Trump.
Some of the Republican Senate leadership team has decided to back Trump. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 3 Senate Republican, endorsed the former president ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, encouraged “every Republican to unite behind” Trump.
Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee. I am encouraging every Republican to unite behind him because it will take all of us to defeat Joe Biden, take back the Senate, and hold the House.
https://t.co/6KiLLvHKqV
— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) January 21, 2024
And a number of senior Republicans outside of leadership got off the sidelines following Trump’s New Hampshire win. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the former Republican majority whip and a potential successor to McConnell, ultimately decided to endorse Trump on Tuesday.
“I have seen enough,” Cornyn wrote on X. “To beat Biden, Republicans need to unite around a single candidate, and it’s clear that President Trump is Republican voters’ choice.”
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), an adviser to McConnell, said Tuesday it is “time to unite around President Donald Trump.”
Many of Trump’s former 2024 rivals have lined up behind him, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Scott, who was appointed by Haley to the Senate when she was governor of the state in 2012. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who was supported by Haley as she faced a Trump-backed primary challenger, ultimately endorsed Trump on Monday ahead of the primary. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), whom Haley endorsed for president when he ran in 2016, also endorsed Trump ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
Trump and his allies called on the Republican Party to unite. Many are going as far to declare him the presumptive nominee.
“It is time for everyone to say Donald Trump is going to be our nominee and what we have to do is put our efforts in helping him to run as strong as he can run so that he can win in November,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
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“I think it’s time for the party to unify, And for us to all get behind President Trump,” she added.
There are a number of Republicans on the House side who are still holding out. Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), who both endorsed DeSantis and traveled with him through Iowa, have not backed Trump in the primary race just yet. But all of Republican leadership in the House has endorsed the former president.