Winston believes the Democratic move to the left will change the nature of the 2020 race. The more Democrats advocate policies that were on the party’s far left just a short time ago — and are still out of the larger political mainstream — the more the race will become a referendum on the future of the country, on which way it should go, and not on the personalities of the candidates. That could unite Republicans — and many independents — against moving in a policy direction so antithetical to their beliefs.

An example of that, Winston noted, is the recent progressive Democratic opposition that forced Amazon to pull out of a plan to build a second headquarters in New York City. The Amazon opponents, Winston wrote in Roll Call, “showed the American people the real-world consequences of progressive socialism and gave Republicans the perfect example to illustrate the choice in 2020 — radical economic policies that cost jobs or pragmatic, commonsense economic policies that drive growth and create jobs.”

But maybe there is some other way a GOP Trump challenge might work. Maybe the Democratic Party will shift again and nominate former Vice President Joe Biden as a more centrist candidate. It’s possible, although it seems hard to believe Biden could win the nomination without moving steadily left. In any event, NeverTrumpers could cite a “moderate” Biden presidency as an acceptable outcome of their challenge to Trump.