Trump Delivers Some Bad News To Red-State Senate Hopefuls

Former President Donald Trump has told populist Republican hopefuls that he will not endorse them for Senate elections in 2024, suggesting that he will back establishment candidates in line with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)’s preferences, according to a CNN report.

During the 2022 midterm elections, Trump endorsed several novice political candidates — such as Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Blake Masters in Arizona and Herschel Walker in Georgia — who won Republican primaries but lost general elections that the GOP had initially expected to win. Trump, by contrast, has informed a candidate and a potential candidate in Montana and West Virginia, two states where Democratic incumbent senators are up for re-election, that he will not support their candidacies, according to CNN.

Republican Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia, who is running for the Senate against incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Justice in the GOP primary, told CNN that Trump is unlikely to support him following meetings he held with Trump to seek his endorsement. Mooney is currently backed by the Club for Growth, which said of Justice that “[h]e would be in … the moderate camp. So we wouldn’t support him in the primary.”

Trump also allegedly informed Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana that he would not receive his endorsement in the Republican primary in 2024. Rosendale had previously run against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana in 2018, with Trump’s endorsement, but lost, and is reported to have been organizing another campaign, according to the report.

Several top Republicans, including the NRSC’s chairman and incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, have endorsed businessman Tim Sheehy in Montana’s Republican senatorial primary instead.

Rosendale and Mooney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.