The Republican Party is never going back

What the last remaining never-Trumpers still haven't learned

John Kasich, Mark Sanford, and Bill Weld.
(Image credit: Illustrated | William Thomas Cain/Getty Images, JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images, Andrew Burton/Getty Images, Zuberka/iStock)

I don't know about you, but for me "Having more people run for president and effectively doubling the number of primary contests" is not up there with "Michigan beating Notre Dame in the playoffs" and "A new deluxe edition of Barbara Bush's letters" on the list of things I want to see next year. But this is what we are going to get if all of the roughly six living #NeverTrump Republicans get their way.

Already four of the six are looking seriously at the possibility of challenging President Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2020. According to the Washington Post, Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina congressman and governor of "Appalachian Trail" fame, is reaching out to party activists in New Hampshire about running as a deficit hawk. Jeff Flake, the aptly named retired senator from Arizona who distinguished himself at the end of his political career by whining as loudly as possible about Trump while inventing principled-sounding reasons for supporting pretty much everything his administration did, claims that donors are reaching out to him preemptively. John Kasich, who completed his second term as the governor of Ohio last year, is also headed up to the Granite State, where he finished a very distant second to Trump in 2016. Meanwhile Bill Weld, who was the Republican governor of Masschusetts around the time AOL was America's largest provider of internet service before becoming a Libertarian and then changing his mind again, still insists that he is in it to win it. "Is Bill Weld the Hero Never Trumpers Have Been Waiting For?" the Post asks. Think how sad it would be if the answer to that question is yes.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.