When Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) was facing an onslaught of outside spending in her member vs. member congressional primary in June, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was one of the only politicians in the GOP who swooped in to try to save her.
He recorded a robocall for Ellmers, who had been one of his earliest congressional supporters. It didn’t work. Ellmers lost, but as the three-term incumbent watches Trump’s campaign weather a near implosion, she says she’s still not ready to give up on him.
“I think we have had a couple of bad days, and I want to see a change in that. I want to see Donald Trump get on message. I want him to stay on message,” Ellmers told TPM in an interview. “I do believe in him. I am just afraid at this point–as others are–that maybe there is just more work that needs to be put into this process to get this right.”
In recent days, reports have surfaced that his surrogates are planning some kind of intervention, that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is “apoplectic,” and that Trump campaign staff is “suicidal.”
“I wish I could tell you where the problem is,” Ellmers told TPM. “There is obviously a problem and they need to rectify it.”
Ellmers is a fascinating sample case in Trump support. She is unencumbered politically. She had a primary and she lost. On the issue of immigration, she has bucked her party’s hard line position at times. But Ellmers is still committed to seeing the Trump campaign come out ahead.
“If there isn’t [an intervention] planned, they need to put one together,” Ellmers said. “Let’s just get on track and move forward.”
Some Republicans in the House of Representatives have begun drawing the line on Trump. Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA) have said they won’t be voting for him. Retiring Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) went further, declaring he will actually cast his ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
But while Ellmers expressed dismay with Trump’s tone, his campaign’s organization and his tendency to go off script, she still insisted “I believe in this man,” even calling back after the initial interview to reiterate that Trump “has a heart of gold.”
Not everyone is as confident in the state of Trump’s campaign. After
Trump spent days attacking a Gold Star family and going out of his way
to say he’s not ready to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) in his primary, one early endorser had major doubts.
A chief of staff to a member who endorsed Trump early told TPM that one minute Trump was sending out an SOS message to Capitol Hill asking for help to move on from the Gold Star family scandal. The next minute, Trump was
giving interviews to the Washington Post about how he isn’t going to endorse two vulnerable senators in their primaries.
“We don’t know what to do right now,” the chief said on the condition of anonymity so that he could speak freely about the state of panic. He added later that some were growing “very, very worried” about what they are seeing from Trump and that there is a sense that Trump has “wasted a great opportunity.”
The chief said that after Trump’s convention, it seemed that the party was finally coming together, but now “everyone is ready to jump right off the ship again.”
Joe Kasper, the chief of staff for Rep. Duncan Hunter, another early Trump supporter, said that at this point, it would just be more beneficial for members who are worried about Trump to pitch in to help instead of running away from him.
“I think some Republicans are looking for any reason to complain or give credence to any early hesitation or refusal to support Trump. He’s not a polished politician and it’s part of his appeal, but members too have an obligation to help him be a better candidate and maybe they should start thinking more about how they can step up,” Kasper said.
Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) noted that there are still more than 90 days until the election and that Trump’s campaign has time.
The election is not tomorrow,” Brown told TPM in an e-mail. “Both sides have work to do. When I compare HRC to Trump, I’ll take Trump every time.”
