An agribusiness veteran who has been accused of groping several women. A celebrity doctor routinely criticized for promoting crank remedies. A man who allegedly pointed a gun at his ex-wife’s head. A culture warrior who recently proclaimed “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” And of course, dozens of candidates who have pushed the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
These are some of the political hopefuls recently endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who is staking his beleaguered reputation on loyalists who imitate his brash, inflammatory rhetoric and his penchant for unsavory and potentially illegal behavior.
In the improbably durable America First movement, Trump’s imprimatur can fuel a candidacy. A PAC associated with J.D. Vance, who is running to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate and recently walked back his expressed apathy for Ukraine, received a $3.5 million donation from billionaire Peter Thiel after Trump expressed his support.
Football player Herschel Walker, meanwhile, is a leading candidate to be the GOP’s nominee for one of Georgia’s two Senate seats. Trump’s endorsement helped Walker overcome several barriers, like the fact that he only recently moved to Georgia and that his past is littered with domestic abuse allegations and failed business ventures.
In Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz has been buoyed by Trump’s embrace. Oz, a once-respected surgeon who has been accused of pushing medical ethics aside in search of fame, is fighting to overcome his association with quack science.
And then there’s Charles Herbster, who is running for governor in Nebraska. The agribusiness executive has been accused of inappropriate sexual contact by seven women, including a Republican state senator who said he reached up her skirt.
On Tuesday, Trump said he’d attend a rally in support of Herbster. Business Insider reports:
Trump will rally with Herbster on April 29 at a local racetrack not far from Omaha. Trump’s decision to endorse Herbster previously rankled more establishment Nebraska Republicans, but a report in which six women accused Herbster of groping them has upended what was already a contentious race.
Herbster, in an almost Trumpian flair, has strenuously denied all of the allegations, argued — without evidence — that his political rivals are behind them, and openly mused about filing defamation lawsuits. Trump also has faced 17 accusations of groping or forcibly kissing women. A spokesperson for Trump has not responded to previous questions about the former president’s views on the allegations.
There is seemingly no failing that Trump will refuse to stomach if the candidate is loyal enough. Max Miller, who is running for Congress in Ohio, was accused of striking Stephanie Grisham, a former girlfriend who worked in the Trump administration. Trump endorsed him anyway.
However, Trump won’t tolerate Republicans who’ll challenge his election lies. He rescinded his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks, after Brooks urged him to move on from The Big Lie.
Endorsing candidates with checkered pasts comes with risk. In a blog post for The Brookings Institution, Senior Fellow Elaine Kamarck writes:
Trump’s ability to call the shots in the upcoming Republican primaries is being tested. Many of the primaries will feature an internal fight between Trump endorsed candidates and more mainstream Republicans. For example, Trump has endorsed 12 candidates running in Republican gubernatorial primaries. If his word was as powerful as he thinks it is, opposition to his candidates should melt away. But that’s not happening. Very few of these races are cake walks for the Trump endorsed candidate.
In Georgia, for instance, the incumbent Governor Brian Kemp, who drew Trump’s enmity when he called the state for Biden, has built a sizeable war chest and is running neck and neck or slightly ahead of Trump’s choice, former Sen. David Perdue. Trump’s choice in Arizona, Kari Lake, is facing a large field of Republican candidates and so far, she’s being out raised. Ditto for Dan Cox, the Trump candidate in the Maryland Republican primary who is behind other Republicans in his fundraising. In Nebraska, Trump endorsed Charles Herbster and immediately Herbster drew harsh criticism about his business practices from the incumbent Republican governor. And in Massachusetts, Trump endorsed Geoff Diehl, who has lost so many races in that very blue state that a former Republican party chair said it would be “foolish” for them to nominate Diehl.
Kamarck concludes:
When it comes to the 2020 election, Trump is a broken record. This has worked—sort of. On the one hand, his obsession with his stolen election has helped spread it to large numbers of Republicans. On the other hand, it has stood in the way of him talking about issues like inflation or the ongoing pandemic that are likely of more immediate concern to voters than 2020. And while, so far, there is no evidence of any Republican who can beat him for the nomination, we are two full years away from the New Hampshire primary and that, as they say, is a lifetime in politics. Between now and then his voters may continue to move away, his endorsed candidates may lose, and more high-profile Republicans may decide to take a stand. If so, by 2024 Trump may turn out to be the little man behind the curtain in “The Wizard of Oz.”
