Jonathan Last: “One of the clear trends of the last several years is that The Party Decides is no longer a maxim that’s universally true. It wasn’t true in the Republican primary of 2016 or the Democratic primary of 2020. It hasn’t been true in most of the Republican senatorial and gubernatorial races of the last six years.”
“Past performance is not indication of future gains, obviously. Maybe the pendulum has swung back and the unified Republican/conservative elites will be able to pull DeSantis across the line.”
“But that’s the central question for the Republican primary. And by coincidence, it gives Trump an obvious line of attack: Even though he’s the former president the party elites are still arrayed against him and trying to impose their will on Republican voters… You can’t be new twice, but you can be anti-establishment forever.”
