Prominent Never Trump Republicans insist they would never back rising Democratic contender Elizabeth Warren, describing an election that pits the liberal Massachusetts senator against a president they despise as a choice between two unacceptable options.
A few Republicans opposed to Trump are prepared to support Warren if she emerges as the only viable challenger, affirming a commitment to topple the president at all costs. But for many well-known Republicans and unaligned political operatives inside the community of conservative Trump opponents, there are limits. Joe Biden, the former vice president, is a traditional labor Democrat they can stomach and even promote for. Warren is another matter, at least as they see things now.
The senator is a progressive populist vowing “big structural change.” She plans to implement a wealth tax, abolish private health insurance, and maintain Trump’s quasi-protectionist trade policies. This agenda is too liberal for many Never Trump Republicans, and they are poised to sit out the 2020 campaign or cast their vote for a hopeless third-party challenger if Warren, 70, wins the Democratic nomination.
“There is no universe where I will ever vote for Donald Trump and there is no universe where I could ever vote for Elizabeth Warren,” said Jennifer Horn, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “If Democrats really care about mending our nation, they shouldn’t be looking at the most far-Left people.”
Never Trump Republicans are troubled by the president’s provocative behavior and take issue with tariffs and efforts to curtail legal immigration. There are additional concerns that Trump does not appreciate international alliances and that his foreign policy could elevate American adversaries China and Russia by reducing U.S. military and diplomatic involvement.
But in interviews with Never Trump Republicans over the past month, there has been a palpable resistance to Warren, even if, as the Democratic nominee, she offers the most realistic path to defeating the president. Indeed, watching the senator catch or surpass Biden in some public opinion polls has left many of the president’s GOP opponents feeling despondent and disenfranchised.
These Never Trump Republicans argue that a Trump-Warren matchup offers equally bad choices, albeit for different reasons. They complain about the senator’s liberalism, which offends their conservative sensibilities and counters everything they have worked for professionally. They also complain about Warren’s populism, which strikes them as similar to the president’s.
“I find certain things about Elizabeth Warren to be reminiscent of Trump, frankly,” said Mona Charen, a conservative columnist and outspoken Trump critic. “I’m very eager to see Trump gone. He’s so destructive to the country and all the things I hold dear — and conservative values. But unfortunately, the Democratic Party seems to have a death wish.”
But viewing Trump as a corrupt threat to the Constitution and cherished American values, there are Never Trump Republicans comfortable with Warren.
A few believe four more years of Trump would be riskier for the country and the world, given the impact of U.S. global leadership, than even the most problematic of Warren’s domestic or foreign policies.
Tom Nichols, a noted national security expert, views a Warren presidency as a necessary price to cleanse the Republican Party of the populist strain of nationalism promulgated by Trump.
Nichols quit the party more than a year ago because of Trump and confirmed to the Washington Examiner plans to vote for any Democrat in 2020, including Warren. He is hopeful the GOP will eventually reconstitute as a party that he can support. Republican operative Tim Miller also would support Warren. Miller, who advised Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign, backs Republican primary candidate Mark Sanford, who is waging a long-shot bid to oust Trump.
Matt K. Lewis, a conservative writer who spurned Trump in 2016 and expects to oppose the president again in 2020, said he could not imagine many committed Never Trump conservatives supporting for Warren.
“There are a lot of Never Trumpers who might reluctantly pull the lever for Joe Biden. He’s Uncle Joe. He’s a return to normalcy. Elizabeth Warren is a much harder sell,” he said.
