INGRASSIA & CODY: The Key To Success For Republicans In 2024 Is Simple: Embrace Trump

The path to success runs through Donald Trump and him alone.

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As recent polls show, President Donald Trump is the leading presidential candidate going into 2024. Even though establishment elites, the GOP consultant base, and warmongers in the Republican Party have worked tirelessly to throw all they can at Trump to ensure he would lose the 2024 GOP Presidential Primary, no man or woman in earshot has a chance of preventing him from being the nominee.

GOP voters have made it clear that they are done with Bush-era Republicans that the corporate donor class has propped up for so long, and that has been reflected in how they have treated Republicans such as Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, and Chris Christie, all of whom are now polling in the single digits.

Similarly, Trumpism dominates how Republicans campaign and govern the country. Economic nationalism, an embrace of the culture war, and anti-interventionism within the Republican Party are positions that have risen to the forefront of national politics ever since Donald Trump became the figurehead within the GOP. These issues have motivated candidates to reevaluate their former stances and reflect on how they are perceived by the body politic at large, rather than simply catering to a select few donors and special interests.

The Ukrainian aid issue has been a hallmark example of this shift, as sitting House Republicans such as Matt Gaetz, Tim Burchett, and others, continue to reject Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell’s proposals for a federal spending resolution in Congress. Most of the currently proposed solutions continue to include aid for the country of Ukraine in their fight against Russia. Thankfully, due to Trump’s continuing influence, so many Republicans are rejecting the establishment and neoconservative idea of being the world police, for a practical approach to foreign policy.

In turn, Republican candidates running for federal office in 2024 are shifting their positions on foreign policy at unprecedented rates. In Nevada, U.S. Senatorial candidate Sam Brown has spoken out against the Biden administration’s push to continue funding Ukraine as he challenges incumbent Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen, who toes the party line. When Brown challenged eventual 2022 U.S. Senate Nominee Adam Laxalt last year in the primary, he came across as more hawkish or, at the very least, agnostic to more aid on issues like the Russo-Ukrainian War. Since then, Brown has made a full-throated embrace of the anti-establishment mantra of the MAGA movement, demonstrating the growing appeal of President Trump’s agenda, a feat made all the more remarkable given that he is no longer officially in government.       

The same old argument that is being made against Donald Trump is being applied with similar fervor against candidates such as Kari Lake in Arizona, as she reportedly will be mounting a bid for the U.S. Senate in coming weeks. Lake and Trump have both been declared ‘unelectable’ by the consultant classes of the Washington establishment. Yet, both are poised to win their nominations by wide margins because of their respective anti-establishment approaches to politics. The importance of these races, and this applies to all anti-establishment insurgent candidates, is that their victories will signify a holistic rejection of the donor class, which includes being bought and paid for by corporations, the Uniparty establishment, and their business and ideological affiliates in the military-industrial complex.

Hence, traditional notions of electability are no longer a good metric for gauging a candidate’s prospects for success in the Trump (and post-Trump) era. Donald Trump has changed the GOP (and for that matter, national politics in general) for a good reason, and there is no sign of that momentum reversing heading into next year’s races.  In fact, quite the contrary: Republican voters have an appetite for more America First politics, an appetite that only appears to be growing larger, not smaller, as time goes on.  

Trump’s impact on American politics is so pervasive that even candidates on the other side of the aisle, potential Democratic contenders like Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo, appear to be adopting a more MAGA cadence as they chart out their own political futures.  Just last week, Cuomo struck a Trumpian chord by threatening to sue the Biden administration over its catastrophic handling of the migrant crisis, which has observed tens of thousands of illegals flood into New York State alone – to say nothing of every other state across the country.  This crisis has overburdened schools and hospitals, exacerbating an infrastructure breakdown that has already reached systemic levels.  Similarly, Newsom embraced a Trumpian tenor following the heels of the recent primary debate, which featured all the other Republican candidates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.  Not only did the California Governor outright dismiss the relevance of the debate, which he called a “waste of time,” but he also agreed to challenge Ron DeSantis in a one-on-one matchup, who was once considered the likeliest candidate to dethrone Trump for the GOP nominee. It would be some kind of poetic irony to witness Gavin Newsom of all people bury Ron DeSantis’ political career for good, who committed political suicide the moment he turned against the 45th President by running against him.

Trump’s influence extends to other political realms as well, including the United States Congress, which has observed Matt Gaetz, a longtime ally of the 45th President, rise to a level of influence in the House of Representatives that now rivals Speaker Kevin McCarthy.  Gaetz famously distinguished himself earlier this year in being one of just twenty congresspeople to buck the party line by not voting for Kevin McCarthy’s Speakership bid.  This has positioned Gaetz as perhaps the most foremost leader of the Republican opposition, and the figurehead for MAGA in the House. 

In recent weeks, Gaetz has doubled down on his criticisms of Kevin McCarthy, threatening to exercise the motion to vacate the chair that was part of January’s compromise which allowed McCarthy to ascend to the Speakership by the skin of his teeth.  Gaetz, more than anyone else, has the power to bring politically hot-button agenda items, such as defunding the Ukrainian war, shutting down the government, or commencing impeachment inquiries against Joe Biden, onto the floor.  Gaetz has also positioned himself along the way as the odds-on favorite to succeed DeSantis for the Florida governorship, even going as far as condemning Byron Donalds, who also regularly flaunts his Trumpian bona fides, for not being strong enough on matters like ending Jack Smith’s two sham indictments against President Trump.

The Gaetz example is indicative of MAGA’s ongoing potency, and the great power that accrues to those select lawmakers who stick to their guns and unreservedly support the agenda that shocked the world and catapulted Donald Trump into office in 2016.  This should be the ultimate telltale for any courageous Republican lawmaker looking for a successful campaign strategy in the future: embrace Trump, and not just halfheartedly, like Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, but wholeheartedly like Gaetz and company. For the path to success runs through Donald Trump and him alone. One would think this should now be obvious given that it has been almost a decade since that historic escalator ride launched the movement that redefined the nation.  But even though most Republican politicians know the tried-and-true formula, those virtues like courage and loyalty, which any true MAGA candidate must have, remain so uncommon today.  This is reflected in the obscenely mediocre quality of the rest of the non-Trump candidates, which further underscores just how rare and gifted President Trump is as a politician.

In sum, MAGA was always a movement that belonged to the lionhearted.  The politicians who exhibit, even on occasion, the qualities that made President Trump’s impact on our politics epoch-making, are guaranteed to always run into success, if only because those virtues remain so rare.

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A slightly modified version of this piece was originally published in America First News, and can be found here.

Paul Ingrassia is a Law Clerk at The McBride Law Firm, PLLC. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club. He is also a two-time Claremont Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, and Rumble.

Kenny Cody is a conservative columnist and activist from Northeast Tennessee. He has had articles published on conservative news sites such as Human Events, The National Pulse, Newsmax, and Townhall.com. Additionally, he serves as Chairman for the Cocke County Republican Party in his home state, and is a high school economics teacher.  Follow him on Twitter @KDCodyTN.