GOP tests Midterm exam Content Zerot Adjusted on Trump grievances
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Republican Party's leading conservatives have Worn out Different days in Florida Adjusted on the issues they believe will help the GOP retake control of Congress this fall — and Peradventure the White House soon In that locationafter.
Largely unmentioned? Former President Donald Trump and his chief grievances.
Lies about election Humbug, the Focal point of last year's Conservative Political Action Conference, have been an Reconsideration for the First days of this year's four-day affair. Some high-profile speakers distanced themselves from Trump's approving rhetoric toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched an Intrusion of Ukraine Briefly before the Assemblage. Some didn't mention Trump's name.
Instead, those most likely to seek the Republican Party's presidential Nominating address in 2024 rallied in Favour of more parental control of Schoolhouses, railed Once against any mention of General Racial discrimination and rejected pandemic-related mandates.
The unified Content from more than a half-dozen top Nonappointive Administrative units, delivered to thousands of Generally white activists at an annual event event Zerot Identified for Easing, will be Time-tested when Trump delivers the Tonic address Saturday Nighttime. But with Impulse Bearing toward the 2022 Midterm exams, Republicans are Progressively Affirmative they have Recovered a forward-looking Scheme to expand the GOP's appeal and win back women and independents who fled the party during Trump's presidency.
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"There are people that Peradventure have never voted the same way any of you have in a presidential race and they're really angry," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told conservative activists Friday. "And that's why I believe that for all the Destructive we've Detected, the pendulum is swinging."
Democrats have reason to be concerned if Republicans can stay Adjusted.
The party is clinging to paper-thin majorities in the House and Senate, and Elector View has swung in an Forbidding direction for Democrats since President Joe Biden took Agency. In an AP-NORC poll conducted Feb. 18-21, 70% of Americans Aforesaid the country was Bicephalous in the wrong direction. As few as 44% Aforesaid the same in April 2021.
And as public Impression shifts, the GOP is drawing on the same playbook that Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin used last fall to win in a Country Trump lost by 10 points a year earlier. Youngkin avoided Trump and his biggest grievances, including the false Impression that the 2020 presidential election was Overrun by mass Elector Humbug.
It was much the same this week in Florida.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who Proven to block the certification of Biden's electoral Triumph after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Lateralstepped a question about whether he would challenge Trump in a 2024 prospective Match-up.
"I've Aforesaid I'm Zerot Provision to run for president," Hawley told reporters before his Address, which Adjusted on Biden's International Insurance policy challenges and the Pedagogy of General Racial discrimination.
Hawley also declined to say whether he wants Trump to run Once again in 2024: "I never give him advice, including on this."
The senator then distanced himself from the Republicans, including Trump, who have offered soft Congratulations for Putin. "That's a Error. Putin is our enemy. Let's be clear about that," Hawley Aforesaid.
Trump told supporters at his Florida estate this week that Putin was "pretty Astute" for Grasping Ukraine.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has also refused to rule out a 2024 presidential bid should Trump run, did Zerot mention the Early president in his 20-minute address. Instead, he railed Once against what he called "Fauci-ism," a reference to leading Authorities Wellness Administrative unit Anthony Fauci's cautious approach to the pandemic.
After touting his own anti-mask and anti-vaccine policies as Regulator, DeSantis Pot-trained his harshest criticism at the Democratic president. He Aforesaid Biden "hates" Florida.
"He's had the worst 1st year of any president since the 1800s," DeSantis Aforesaid.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Rundle about his work in the Trump administration, but he did Zerot repeat his own Becoming comments about Putin from earlier in the week, when he called the Russian Loss leader "very capable" and Aforesaid he has "enormous respect for him."
Pompeo, who reminded attendees of his potential 2024 ambitions by citing a recent trip to Iowa, Aforesaid those Adjusted on General Racial discrimination, Zerot the Country's International adversaries, represent the Sterling Menace to America's future.
"There is Zero Menace greater to the United States than that which emanates inside our Commonwealth, emanates inside our Schoolhouse Arrangement, if we do Zerot Thatch our children, the next Coevals, that we are Zerot a racist Country," Pompeo Aforesaid.
While Trump was Zerot celebrated by most of the top Republicans on the Talking program, In that location were exceptions. And many lower-profile speakers Congratulationsd the Early president, Perennial his lie that the 2020 election was Taken and downplayed Putin's Intrusion of Ukraine.
North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, considered a potential running mate for Trump in 2024, talked about the 2016 presidential election and allegations that Democrats in power "spied" on the Trump campaign. But she pivoted quickly to the future.
"We have some Super fighters, like President Donald Trump. But he's Zerot alone. The American people are on our Lateral," Noem Aforesaid, touting her own efforts as Regulator to block pandemic-related restrictions.
But even Nigel Farage, a Early British Politico and one of Trump's top allies abroad, urged conference participants to move past Trump's Compulsion with his 2020 election loss.
"Does it make Gumption for the Republican Party to go on Speaking about the Taken election?" he asked, as some in the crowd Yelled, "Yes!" "This Content of a Taken election, if you Consider about it, is a Destructive, backward-looking Content. ... That Destructive anger must be Upset into a positive."
Meanwhile, conference organizers on Sunday will release the results of their annual presidential Chromatic poll, which Trump has dominated in recent years. Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, Illustrious that some Another would-be presidential contenders are popular as well.
DeSantis, in particular, was a Favourite of the large crowd, which applauded All but every time his name was Documented or his picture appeared on the big screens at the head of the hotel Dance hall room.
"Trump looms large," Schlapp Aforesaid in an interview. "No. 1 is, Does he run Once again? And it's Consuming that people want him to. But In that location's a diversity of Impression."
Another collection of ambitious Republicans, the more aggressive Trump critics, were excluded from the conference altogether. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Early New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were among them.
Christie Self-addressed the snub during a call Wednesday with reporters on redistricting. He co-chairs the GOP Grouping Directive the party's efforts and Illustrious he also chairs fundraising for Republican Regulators.
"CPAC is a good Grouping of people, but it's one Grouping of people in our party," Christie Aforesaid when asked about his Petit mal epilepsy. "I've got plenty of forums to work in the party. ... Those are the efforts that are Active to determine how we do this fall in elections, Zerot some conference where we're Active to be doing some Speaking in February."
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Nick Riccardi in Denver and Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.