“I’m a gambler,” Trump said, explaining to one adviser why he wanted to get into the Pennsylvania race, according to a person who heard his comments and who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal private discussions.
With his endorsements of Oz, Senate candidate Ted Budd in North Carolina, gubernatorial hopeful David Perdue in Georgia and, on Friday, author and Senate candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio, Trump has leaped into the middle of several competitive primaries that could put his desired image as a kingmaker at risk…
The fate of his candidates is being closely watched by his own party, including potential rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination, as a measure of how strong a force he remains in the GOP. Trump has taken a different tack than many other presidential hopefuls, jumping into messy races and angling for fights in critical states, instead of making safe endorsements and staying out of charged Republican primaries. At times, he has picked candidates trailing in the polls and has taken advice from a hodgepodge of informal and formal advisers, real estate friends, consultants, Mar-a-Lago members, and others to make selections.
“The biggest way to defeat him is to electorally chip away at the notion he is the most powerful endorsement in the country. He still is, but smart operatives need to play against him in races where he’s made dumb endorsements,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House communications director under Trump, who has become a critic.
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