“It’s gotten to the point where it’s just get on board or get out of the way,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told the Examiner. “Many of the people who missed the point on stopping Trump have also missed the point on the purpose of political parties. Political parties are not meant to be ideological vessels, but competing enterprises whose job is to win elections.”

“There is no path forward,” former Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told the Examiner. “It’s a terrific strategy if you want to see a Democrat elected to the White House. It is extraordinarily difficult to run a third-party candidate successfully, and anyone trying to organize a third-party campaign right now just opens themselves up to the suspicion that they’re simply interested in cashing in on an ego.”…

“We aren’t quitters,” Wilson said. “Nobody here is doing this to get rich or have fun. We’re doing this because if we don’t, the Republican Party becomes permanently smeared with this guy’s vile mannerisms and attitude. So we’re going to keep swinging this thing because the stakes are too high to do anything less.”

For many of them, it is also personal. Prominent anti-Trump conservatives have been targeted by Trump supporters for harassment, threats and racial or ethnic slurs, especially on social media. Trump and those around him have done little to discourage this behavior.