Former President Donald Trump privately huddled with a group of Louisiana Republican Party leaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate last month as part of a larger campaign to win the support of the strong politicians who will pick the party’s nominee in 2024.
It was also an attempt to avoid repeating the early gaffes that dogged Trump’s first presidential campaign, gaffes that have persisted with the former president seven years later.
Trump has told aides that he recalls vividly what transpired in Louisiana during the 2016 election. After winning the primary, he was outmanoeuvred by his main opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who realised that the state’s delegates were important at the Republican National Convention.
Cruz fared better than predicted in the state’s delegate race. Following the scandal, Trump hired veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort in an effort to add professionalism to his delegate operation. He has told advisers in the years since, “I won the primary but lost the delegates.” According to a person familiar with the conversation, when he met with Louisiana Republican Party leaders, the narrative of his delegate dispute with Cruz was among the things discussed.
Trump is now embroiled in another delegate war, actively pursuing party officials — in Louisiana and elsewhere — who are slated to be delegates at the party’s 2024 convention in Milwaukee. He’s been dining with them at Mar-a-Lago, talking them up at parties, and endorsing them. The effort will ramp up in the coming weeks, with Trump set to participate at state party meetings attended by future national delegates.
The courting exemplifies Trump’s evolution as a presidential contender, from the political rookie who led a chaotic organisation in 2016 to the veteran campaigner now playing the inside game.
“They’re very organised and start early.” “They’ve contacted us several times,” said Rhett Davis, a Louisiana GOP consultant. “In Louisiana, President Trump is in a much better position than he was in 2016.” He’s quite powerful here.”
“No other presidential campaign, current or potential, has reached out to us,” Davis continued.
Delegates are elected in presidential primaries and caucuses rather than candidates. The nominee will be whoever receives a simple majority of those delegates at the national conference next year.
While those delegates are initially assigned to certain candidates, they can become unbound in the case of a contested convention or if their candidate releases them. As a result, they become targets for wooing. Delegates are often state party officials and others active in Republican politics, and Trump has lavished attention on them since leaving the White House.
Local Republican Party chairs were regularly granted speaking time at Trump-hosted rallies ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, and the former president spoke remotely to a gathering of the South Carolina GOP executive committee last year. He has also run full-page advertisements in Iowa Republican Party magazines. When Trump announced his bid for president in 2024, his first campaign trip was at a meeting of the New Hampshire Republican Party.
Trump is also wooing potential delegates with the trappings of his opulent Mar-a-Lago resort. In early March, the former president hosted a three-hour dinner for a dozen Nevada Republican Party leaders. Trump discussed the political landscape in the state, which normally hosts an early nominating contest, over steaks and ice cream.
When Trump is not meeting with future delegates in person, he is reaching out to them in other ways. When the Missouri Republican Party gathered in February, Trump called the state party chair, Nick Myers, who put him on speakerphone so he could address the crowd.
In Michigan, he has worked hard to establish a good working relationship with Kristina Karamo, the state’s freshly elected party chair. Trump had previously endorsed a competing candidate for Michigan Republican Party chair in February, but he personally complimented Karamo when he met her at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early March, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Trump has used his much-coveted endorsement to sway potential delegates. Earlier this year, the former president endorsed Caleb Heimlich in his successful reelection bid for Washington State GOP chair. Last month, the former president got involved in a more local contest, sponsoring Bruce Parks in his eventually successful bid for chairman of Nevada’s Washoe County GOP.
A team of delegate-fighting veterans advises Trump on his tactics. Brian Jack, Susie Wiles, and Chris LaCivita are among those who played major roles at the 2016 national convention. Clayton Henson, who worked in the Trump White House and on the former president’s 2020 reelection campaign, is also on the team. Much of Trump’s team attended the Republican National Committee meeting in Dana Point, California, earlier this year, when they spoke with state party officials.
Trump associates believe that their early outreach will give them a leg up on competitor contenders, who do not have Trump’s long-standing contacts to party officials.
“The Trump campaign… has spent the last eight years fine-tuning its unrivalled operation,” a Trump campaign official, Steven Cheung, claimed. “It is laughable and delusory for any other campaign to believe it can even come close to what President Trump has built.”
What Trump’s campaign is attempting to avoid is a replay of the 2016 national convention, when Cruz made a last-ditch effort to prevent Trump from being elected. While it was ultimately unsuccessful, it was humiliating for Trump.
Many of Cruz’s biggest supporters are now on the board of a super PAC supporting Trump’s main primary opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is among those in the organisation, who helped drive the anti-Trump campaign at the 2016 Republican National Convention, throwing his credentials on the floor in protest.
Never Back Down spokesperson Erin Perrine declined to comment specifically on the group’s plans to engage in delegate outreach, but accused Trump of engaging in “Washington insider games” that “show he’s become the swamp he once vowed to drain.”
Still, many state party leaders believe Trump has a significant organisational advantage over other contenders when it comes to recruiting prospective delegates.
Kansas Republican Party Chair Mike Brown said he has had extensive discussions with Trump officials on the state’s electoral scene.
“They’ve done a good job of staying in touch,” Brown said of the Trump campaign. “I haven’t heard anything about the other campaigns, to be honest.”