(audience applauds)
- This will not be my campaign.
This will be our campaign, all together.
(crowd cheers)
- [Narrator] Former President Donald Trump
has announced his plan to run
in the 2024 presidential election,
after spending months on the midterm campaign trail
endorsing a host of Republican candidates.
- Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit,
and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all.
- [Narrator] While Trump remains
a clear leader in the Republican Party,
his appeal has changed since he ran in 2016 and 2020.
- There's sort of a fatigue among some Republicans
over Donald Trump and his antics
and what he's left the party with.
- [Narrator] So what has changed
since his first two presidential campaigns?
And how could those changes
impact his political power and influence
in the 2024 presidential election?
Several of the Republican midterm candidates
that Trump endorsed and campaigned with
were expected to be a part of a so-called red wave
that would carry the party to complete control of Congress.
- Just three days from now,
the people of Pennsylvania are going to elect
Dr. Mehmet Oz to the United States Senate.
(crowd cheers)
- [Narrator] But the outcome of the midterms
was weaker than expected for the GOP.
Republicans are poised to flip control of the House,
but several Trump-backed candidates
in pivotal Senate races struggled,
and the party was unable to flip control of the Senate.
Candidates who embraced
Trump's unfounded election fraud claims
performed particularly poorly in the midterms.
Blake Masters, who lost in Arizona
to the Democratic incumbent, Mark Kelly,
aligned himself with Trump,
supporting national abortion restrictions
and claims of 2020 election fraud.
He lost independent voters
by more than 30 percentage points, according to AP VoteCast.
That, and similar situations
with other Trump-backed candidates,
like Tudor Dixon and Doug Mastriano,
called into question the power of a Trump endorsement
and whether his brand
has turned away some independent voters.
- There are people who normally would not talk on the record
talking on the record to reporters and elsewhere
about, "Donald Trump needs to move on.
It's time for someone else."
- [Narrator] But one Trump-backed candidate
did perform well among voters.
- We've accomplished more
than anybody thought possible four years ago.
But we've got so much more to do,
and I have only begun to fight.
- Ron DeSantis's midterm election victory was so huge
that it has sort of rewritten
how Republicans are looking at the presidential race.
Suddenly, it's not just Donald Trump's nomination to lose.
- [Narrator] DeSantis has not announced a presidential bid,
but Trump has already started attacking
the Florida governor.
- Trump at 71,
Ron DeSanctimonious at 10%.
- [Narrator] DeSantis's victory comes after some Republicans
have openly called for the party
to move past the former president and look for a new leader.
- It's basically the third election in a row
that Donald Trump has cost us the race.
And it's like, you know, three strikes, you're out.
- There is a growing sense of Republicans
identifying more as members of the GOP,
versus supporters of Donald Trump.
- [Narrator] Following the midterm elections,
some Republicans have said
that Trump's influence and endorsement choices
have cost the party winnable races.
- Those who are most closely aligned
with the former president underperformed.
Those who are talking about the future,
who had managed their states well, they overperformed.
- [Narrator] Other potential challengers
for the Republican nomination
include Trump's 2016 running mate,
former Vice President Mike Pence,
who parted ways with Trump
following the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
- One thing that will be really interesting to watch
is how not just voters but the donors,
the big money people, and who they put their money behind.
A lot of them do want to see someone else.
- [Narrator] Trump has a proven track record
when it comes to online and grassroots fundraising,
even after leaving the Oval Office.
Earlier this year, a Federal Election Commission filing
showed that Trump had more than $120 million in cash
across his post-presidential political operation.
But with the presence of other potential front-runners
in the presidential race, like Ron DeSantis,
it remains to be seen where donors will invest their money.
- They are looking to someone else
that can kind of bring the party
a little bit back to where it had been,
a more traditional kind of conservatism.
- [Narrator] Trump also moves forward
amid a host of legal issues,
including civil and criminal investigations
into his company, Trump Organization,
the January 6th probe,
and a federal investigation
into mishandled classified White House records.
- [Crowd Chanting] Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
- [Narrator] Trump still remains popular
with right-leaning voters and allies within the party,
but he now faces new challenges
that could influence his candidacy
ahead of the presidential election.
- He still is the number one beloved figure in the party
among the voters, the base there.
Now there are cracks in that,
but Donald Trump is still a very, very strong
and powerful force in the party.
And that should not be overlooked,
even as there are some cracks
and rising stars like Ron DeSantis.
(contemplative music)