Five states have announced plans to cancel their Republican presidential primaries, supposedly as a favor to President Donald Trump.
This deprives Republican voters in five states of a voice in the 2020 nominating process and complicates efforts by Trump’s long-shot opponents to gain traction as the most controversial president in U.S. history faces the growing prospect of impeachment. The states are South Carolina, Alaska, Arizona, Kansas and Nevada.
Stifling competition is un-American. It makes Trump look weaker, not stronger. It’s a form of voter suppression.
Fortunately for Florida, the show will go on, and that’s a good thing.
Trump’s adopted state will hold its Republican presidential preference primary as scheduled on March 17, 2020. The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature chose the date.
To boost his chances this time, Trump has personally chosen a new state GOP executive director, and he will likely benefit from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s riding a wave of popularity with Florida voters.
In the view of Florida Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters, Trump would get 95% of the state’s primary vote if the election were held today. “People love the guy,” Gruters told the Sun Sentinel. “Trump will overwhelmingly exceed expectations.”
Let’s hope he’s wrong, but we all need to find out the answer. It’s more important than ever with the news of a CBS News poll showing that 23% of Republicans support an impeachment inquiry of Trump based on his request that Ukraine investigate the son of a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Gruters, a state senator from Sarasota, was one of Trump’s earliest Florida supporters and co-chaired his 2016 Florida campaign, and not everyone agrees with his decision.
Alan Levy, a Republican state committeeman and longtime party activist, circulated an email to party activists criticizing Gruters for holding Florida’s Republican primary.
“Why not give our state’s citizens the best, most unified appearance?” Levy wrote.
Cancelling party primaries to help a sitting president is hardly unprecedented. But that doesn’t make it right.
Despite its importance as an early primary state, South Carolina scrapped Republican primaries twice in years when two presidents sought reelection: Ronald Reagan in 1984 and George W. Bush in 2004. Democrats in that state did the same for incumbents Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012.
Trump’s potential Republican challengers are Joe Walsh, a former Illinois congressman; William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts; and Mark Sanford, a former South Carolina governor and congressman. The trio wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post in which they said the cancellations prove that the Republican Party stands for nothing.
“Cowards run from fights,” they wrote.
This president has a deplorable record. He is the single most divisive force in America. He has not earned a second term. He should have to face the voters as often as possible in this key battleground state.
Editorial by the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com
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