Of the 31 Republican governors, 54 GOP senators and the 246 Republican members of the House (331 total), the survey identified 87 who are not endorsing Trump’s candidacy as of late Tuesday.
It is an extraordinary demonstration of the fracture Trump’s candidacy has revealed in the Republican Party. There is no precedent in modern American political history for elected officials of either party to refuse en masse to support their presidential nominee. It shows that Trump will have to wage a national campaign without the fleet of surrogates and supporters that every other presidential contender has relied on for decades to help bring voters to the polls. And it illustrates how hard it will be for the GOP to rebuild if Trump loses.
Some of these elected officials rejected Trump months ago; many turned on him since the release of a 2005 tape of Trump making lewd comments about women; and some simply refuse to say whether they will or will not vote for their party’s presidential nominee.
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