Never Trump movement
The Never Trump movement, also called the #nevertrump, Stop Trump, anti-Trump, or Dump Trump movement, is an ongoing moderate conservative movement that opposes Trumpism and 45th U.S. president Donald Trump. It began as an effort on the part of a group of Republicans (known as Never Trump Republicans) and other prominent conservatives to prevent Republican front-runner Donald Trump from obtaining the Republican Party presidential nomination. After he was nominated, this shifted into an effort to prevent him from obtaining the presidency in the 2016 United States presidential election. Trump remained unsupported by 20 percent of Republican members of Congress in the general election. Following Trump's election in November 2016, some in the movement refocused their efforts on defeating Trump in 2020. Trump entered the Republican primaries on June 16, 2015, at a time when governors Jeb Bush and Scott Walker and Senator Marco Rubio were viewed as early frontrunners. Trump was considered a longshot to win the nomination, but his large media profile gave him a chance to spread his message and appear in the Republican debates. By the end of 2015, Trump was leading the Republican field in national polls. At this point, some Republicans, such as former Mitt Romney adviser Alex Castellanos, called for a "negative ad blitz" against Trump and another former Romney aide founded Our Principles PAC to attack Trump. After Trump won the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, many Republican leaders called for the party to unite around a single leader to stop Trump's nomination. The Never Trump movement gained momentum following Trump's wins in the March 15, 2016, Super Tuesday primaries, including his victory over Rubio in Florida. After Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race following Trump's primary victory in Indiana on May 3, 2016, Trump became the presumptive nominee while internal opposition to Trump remained as the process pivoted towards a general election. Following unsuccessful attempts by some delegates at the Republican National Convention to block his nomination, Trump became the Republican Party's 2016 nominee for president on July 18, 2016. Some members of the Never Trump movement endorsed other candidates in the general election, such as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, independent conservative Evan McMullin and American Solidarity Party nominee Mike Maturen. Some have compared the Never Trump movement to the Mugwumps, Republicans in the 1884 United States presidential election who refused to back party nominee James G. Blaine and instead threw support for Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland. Erickson meeting On March 17, 2016, anti-Trump conservatives met at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C., to discuss strategies for preventing Trump from securing the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in July. Among the strategies discussed were a "unity ticket", a possible third-party candidate and a contested convention, especially if Trump did not gain the 1,237 delegates necessary to secure the nomination. The meeting was organized by Erick Erickson, Bill Wichterman and Bob Fischer. Around two dozen people attended. Consensus was reached that Trump's