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Mark Cuban confirms GOP is scouting for third-party run against Trump

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...p-table-main_thirdparty-1248pm:homepage/story
A band of exasperated Republicans — including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a handful of veteran consultants and members of the conservative intelligentsia — is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House.

These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources­ and courting potential contenders, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republicans involved in the discussions. The effort has been sporadic all spring but has intensified significantly in the 10 days since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination.

Those involved concede that an independent campaign at this late stage is probably futile, and they think they have only a couple of weeks to launch a credible bid. But these Republicans — including commentators William Kristol and Erick Erickson and strategists Mike Murphy, Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson — are so repulsed by the prospect of Trump as commander in chief that they are desperate to take action.

Their top recruiting prospects are freshman Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a conservative who has become one of Trump’s sharpest critics, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who withdrew from the Republican presidential race May 4. Romney is among those who have made personal overtures to both men in recent days, according to several people with knowledge of the former Massachusetts governor’s activities.
...

The recruiters also delved into the world of reality television for someone who might out-Trump Trump: Mark Cuban, the brash billionaire businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.

Again and again, though, these anti-Trump Republicans have heard the same tepid response: Thanks, but no thanks.

“I don’t see it happening,” ­Cuban wrote in an email.

Cuban, a cast member on “Shark Tank,” the ABC reality series in which entrepreneurs pitch investors about their business ideas, said his pursuers — he declined to name them — have told him that his “bluster and volume, combined with substance and the ability to connect with voters on a more personal basis,” could make him a winning candidate.

“He could come after me all he wanted, and he knows I would put him in his place,” Cuban said of Trump. “All that said, again, I don’t see it happening. There isn’t enough time.”
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F

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
"The recruiters also delved into the world of reality television for someone who might out-Trump Trump: Mark Cuban, the brash billionaire businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team."

This country is pathetic. Let's just make Guy Fieri president, people knows him from the speakin box!
 
B

BlackLagoon

Member
LCGeek said:
Come on so is ben carson from rumor shows I've seen on seen on any of the big 3 networks.
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Ben Carson is actually in charge of the search for Trump's VP, so his involvement is not in any way a rumor. (Or he was at least, seems he might have left the committee now.)
 
G

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
He would probably have to give up ownership of the Mavericks (or at least back off his involvement), both of which I can't see Cuban doing for a guaranteed failed bid for President.
 
O

Orbis Tabula

Member
Well, they'd already have to write off Texas, I believe. I'm pretty sure the deadline there ended. And I can't see a GOP electoral win without Texas.

Then again, I don't think the idea is an electoral win. It's best case scenario, deny a Clinton victory, worst case scenario, distance yourself from Trumpism.

That said, please proceed.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
In a shocking development, Mark Cuban contrives a way to get the news to talk about himself.
 
H

Hard

Banned
So the GOP is just looking for some well-known idiot to run a kamikaze mission into Trump's battleship? Can't say there'd be too many suitors.
 
D

Dali

Member
So this section of Republicans are trying to ensure Hillary wins the White House? I mean all a third party candidate that was a conservative Republican would do is draw votes from Trump. So Hillary would keep her majority and Trump's votes would be split.
 
H

Hazmat

Member
I support this if we can get the GOP's sacrificial lambs to go on Shark Tank to plead their cases and try to get the founder of FUBU to support their campaign in exchange for a contract to make casual wear for off-duty servicemen.
 
I

Imperfected

Member
Dali said:
So this section of Republicans are trying to ensure Hillary wins the White House? I mean all a third party candidate that was a conservative Republican would do is draw votes from Trump. So Hillary would keep her majority and Trump's votes would be split.
Click to expand...

More or less. The thinking is that if the Republican Party wants to survive in any meaningful form, they need to distance themselves as far from Trump as possible.

Basically, after he fails to take the White House they would have a "house cleaning" and try to drive Trump (and probably the Tea Partiers) out of the party so that they can put on a new face and maybe have a reasonable shot at a 2024 election.
 
B

BriGuy

Member
They're not going to do shit. The closer we get to November, the more we're going to hear "well, he's better than Hillary" trotted out as an excuse to vote for him.
 
D

Dali

Member
Imperfected said:
More or less. The thinking is that if the Republican Party wants to survive in any meaningful form, they need to distance themselves as far from Trump as possible.

Basically, after he fails to take the White House they would have a "house cleaning" and try to drive Trump (and probably the Tea Partiers) out of the party so that they can put on a new face and maybe have a reasonable shot at a 2024 election.
Click to expand...
But Trump has shown that a hate-mongering demagogue is what a large portion of their party wants. You can't clean house when the people you want to get rid of are voted into place. You have to change the minds of the voters. Good luck with that. Being hateful has always been a major draw of the party.
 
A

adamsappel

Member
Are they doing this to ensure Trump has absolutely no chance at the presidency, or are they trying to make the third-party candidate the winner? The latter is impossible, but the former is achievable with a candidate appealing to traditional conservatives who can siphon those votes. It would be admirable if a Trump presidency is so abhorrent to establishment Republicans that they would do anything to prevent it, but I tend to think this is a "Trump can't beat Hillary" movement.
 
I

Imperfected

Member
Dali said:
But Trump has shown that a hate-mongering demagogue is what a large portion of their party wants. You can't clean house when the people you want to get rid of are voted into place. You have to change the minds of the voters. Good luck with that. Being hateful has always been a major draw of the party.
Click to expand...

The GOP is a lot of things, but they aren't incompetent.

They ran with the Southern Strategy for decades because as despicable as it was, it worked. They propped it up with half-measures for as long as possible to keep it working because they were too invested to easily turn away from it.

The problem they have is that we've passed the tipping point where it will work. No amount of gerrymandering and electoral college shenanigans is going to make a hateful, racist ticket winnable in 2016, and the potential of that sort of vile rhetoric is only on the way out; long-term, it's complete political suicide to continue repelling blacks, Hispanics, and also Muslims from the party to court a shrinking subset of the also-shrinking white majority. They have to break hard from the Southern Strategy to have any hope of being more than a permanent minority party for the foreseeable future, and they know that.

To back Trump is to double-down on that failing strategy. They would still lose the White House--he's fundamentally unelectable--and in exchange they would completely drive away another entire generation of minority voters, along with anyone who's even the slightest bit left of centre when it comes to moderates.

Alternately, they can torpedo his campaign, drive the hate-mongers away from the party, and try to re-brand themselves as moderates to sponge up an extremely large number of voters who split on various issues and ultimately fall closer to the middle of the spectrum than the extremes. Granted, re-branding a party as entrenched as the GOP isn't easy, but that's why they need a spectacular falling out where they turn on their own candidate to make it happen.

Personally, I kind of hope they don't do this so that the party just dies rotting on the vine, but that's just because I don't believe very deeply that they're going to sincerely make the move to become moderates.
 
A

AntraxSuicide

Banned
Jarmel said:
Aren't the ballot deadlines already here?
Click to expand...

For a pure independent run, yes. A lot of the deadlines have passed. But not if you just hijack join another random party, and there are a ton of them that would love that kind of spotlight. Make a deal with the Constitution Party or something and just run on that ticket.
 
W

woolley

Member
Dali said:
So this section of Republicans are trying to ensure Hillary wins the White House? I mean all a third party candidate that was a conservative Republican would do is draw votes from Trump. So Hillary would keep her majority and Trump's votes would be split.
Click to expand...

A third party bid is more about getting people out to vote to help the down ticket and less about trying to win the White House. At this point they've already lost it.
 
B

BanGy.nz

Banned
AntraxSuicide said:
For a pure independent run, yes. A lot of the deadlines have passed. But not if you just hijack join another random party, and there are a ton of them that would love that kind of spotlight. Make a deal with the Constitution Party or something and just run on that ticket.
Click to expand...

RIP Innovation party.
 
K

Koomaster

Member
GameAddict411 said:
That would be an effective way to stop trump, but it will also eliminate any chance of them winning the white house.
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They've already lost the White House, they are just trying to keep the whole neighborhood from burning down at this point.

A potential Trump presidency would be an embarrassment for the party. Republicans would lose control of most of Washington for decades.

Some have already accepted, others are in denial, the rest aren't going to go gentle into that Trump nightmare.
 
A

AntraxSuicide

Banned
Imperfected said:
The GOP is a lot of things, but they aren't incompetent.

They ran with the Southern Strategy for decades because as despicable as it was, it worked. They propped it up with half-measures for as long as possible to keep it working because they were too invested to easily turn away from it.

The problem they have is that we've passed the tipping point where it will work. No amount of gerrymandering and electoral college shenanigans is going to make a hateful, racist ticket winnable in 2016, and the potential of that sort of vile rhetoric is only on the way out; long-term, it's complete political suicide to continue repelling blacks, Hispanics, and also Muslims from the party to court a shrinking subset of the also-shrinking white majority. They have to break hard from the Southern Strategy to have any hope of being more than a permanent minority party for the foreseeable future, and they know that.

To back Trump is to double-down on that failing strategy. They would still lose the White House--he's fundamentally unelectable--and in exchange they would completely drive away another entire generation of minority voters, along with anyone who's even the slightest bit left of centre when it comes to moderates.

Alternately, they can torpedo his campaign, drive the hate-mongers away from the party, and try to re-brand themselves as moderates to sponge up an extremely large number of voters who split on various issues and ultimately fall closer to the middle of the spectrum than the extremes. Granted, re-branding a party as entrenched as the GOP isn't easy, but that's why they need a spectacular falling out where they turn on their own candidate to make it happen.

Personally, I kind of hope they don't do this so that the party just dies rotting on the vine, but that's just because I don't believe very deeply that they're going to sincerely make the move to become moderates.
Click to expand...

I think it was Nate Cohn who recently pointed out an interesting statistic that Ronald Reagan (Conservative Jesus incarnate) would actually lose the 1980 election if the demographics of the country then were what they are now.

Ronald Reagan. He'd get beat by a pretty weak Jimmy Carter. The Southern Strategy worked for decades, but it's no longer a functional plan. It simply doesn't work anymore; to bet on it at all is to imply that Republicans are going to beat Romney/Reagan numbers with white people, and that's just plain not happening.

Track it like you're solving a game (like TicTacToe). There simply is no victory in the short-term. Hillary Clinton is going to be the 45th POTUS. What can you do to fight her re-election in 2020? With these demographics, nothing. Nothing at all. So the only option is to do better with minority groups. You do not do that by ever endorsing Donald Trump. That stink will last for decades, and it's honestly never going away for black people. Hispanics aren't as hard Dem as black people, but they'll be a helluva lot harder to win over after an uncontested Trump run.

If I was Pubis, I'd screw Trump over so hard with another candidate, but I'd make him do the 3rd party thing. Steal this election from him (and you can do that with a simple rule change), and then never look back. He'll lose his job (that's happening anyway), but you might just see better numbers with minorities in a few years. Maybe.
 
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