Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner won’t attend the Republican National Convention in July and won’t be endorsing Donald Trump, Rauner aides confirmed on Thursday, while not entirely disavowing the presumptive GOP nominee.
And it’s not yet clear whether Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger will make the trip to Cleveland, as she faces a challenge from Democrat Susana Mendoza this fall.
If she goes after Rauner ditched, she’s nuts. I highly doubt she’ll attend.
While Rauner has dubbed the presidential campaign’s rhetoric “appalling,” he has publicly stated — as the head of the state’s Republican Party — that he will support the nominee.
“I’ll do everything I can to work with that nominee,” Rauner said in March.
Rauner repeatedly had sought to stay out of the presidential race, though he did say that as leader of the GOP in Illinois, he would back the eventual nominee. But Rauner aides stressed there are various levels of “support,” and that the governor would not be giving Trump a formal endorsement.
Underscoring the politics behind Rauner’s move, the governor’s decision means he also will not accept the traditional role of heading up Illinois’ 69-member convention delegation and the high-profile media appearances that come with it. At the same time, Rauner avoids any potential appearance with Trump, which some advisers said privately would not be helpful to the governor back home.
“My feeling is we overestimate the impact of tactics and underestimate broad trends and demographics,” he said. “What Trump does or doesn’t do may have less impact than what Munger or Kirk does. Then there’s the broader context of the election and who votes and who doesn’t vote and what gets people to come out to vote.”
People pay infinitely more attention to presidential races than comptroller races, but that last sentence is most certainly valid. The headwinds ain’t gonna be kind.
His appeal among disaffected Republican primary voters is intensely visceral: He’d arrive in Washington a billionaire businessman in a hurry and get things done. After years of gridlock in Washington, who doesn’t find the idea of an outsider appealing? […]
Trump is an undisciplined political neophyte who loves the limelight and promises big changes, most of which appear either implausible or too vague to take seriously.
