After Super Tuesday, the Republican Party is figuring out how to grieve
By David Weigel March 1 at 10:49 PM
washingtonpost.com
As Donald Trump rampaged through the Super Tuesday states, adding Massachusetts and Georgia and Virginia to his map, the Republican Party’s mainstream decided to trade panic for hope.“Trump is not sweeping the Super Tuesday states as expected,” said Katie Packer, the Republican strategist whose Our Principles PAC was loading new attack spots for the mid-March contests.
“This is exactly how Democrats governed for 50 years,” said GOP activist Grover Norquist, stepping out of the annual dinner of the American Spectator magazine. “They owned the states. They occasionally won the presidency.”
If this did not sound like the reactions of people watching a hostile takeover of their political home, it was because their eyes were adjusting to a new reality. In the hours before the polls closed, some elected Republicans said they would refuse to support a Trump candidacy. More said he was dreadful, but they would support the ticket. And some thinkers, more aligned with the conservative movement than any party, were making contingency plans in case they needed to split.
“My love for our country eclipses my loyalty to our party,” said Rigell, “and to live with a clear conscience I will not support a nominee so lacking in the judgment, temperament and character needed to be our nation’s commander-in-chief.”
Rigell had company, with Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) saying that they could not support Trump either — Sasse even saying he would favor the creation of a new party if Trump won the nomination. But more Republicans were choosing to wait it out, following House Speaker Paul D. Ryan in condemning Trump’s behavior.
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