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State GOP leaders shift support to Trump

Geoff Pender
The Clarion-Ledger

Gov. Phil Bryant

Mississippi Republican leaders — including those who had supported other candidates — say they'll support Donald Trump now that he appears to be the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

"As our governor said last night, it is now time to focus on the general election," said Joe Nosef, state Republican Party chairman. "We need to all get behind Donald Trump, who will be our nominee, and work hard to make him the next president of the United States."

Gov. Phil Bryant, who had endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Mississippi's March presidential primary, says he is now supporting Donald Trump for president "because the possibility of a Clinton victory is unacceptable."

"(Trump) now has the responsibility and certainly the ability to unite this Grand Old Party and go on to victory."

State Sen. Chris McDaniel, who co-chaired Cruz' Mississippi campaign, said "our rallying cry is now 'anyone but Hillary.'"

McDaniel said the campaigns of both Trump and Cruz were "born of a dissatisfaction with the (Republican) establishment," and he expects Cruz supporters to easily transition to Trump. But he said uniting the party will be difficult.

"The party abandoned conservatives, abandoned the grass roots, and ridiculed and mocked us, and Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were the direct result of the type of abuse they inflicted on grassroots conservatives across the nation," McDaniel said. "It will be difficult to unite unless we find our core fundamental principles. It was the establishment, not Cruz or Trump, that jettisoned those principles."

Former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, who has been a national co-chair for Ohio Gov. John Kasich's presidential bid, said that "both parties have underestimated Trump."

"And both parties missed where the American people are," Republican Lott said. "The angst, fear and anger people have about job security, international security, the invasion of immigrants pouring in here illegally — Trump was able to tap into that. The establishment media and establishment party officials — some would say I was one of them — did not totally understand that."

Lott said he will support Trump if he's the nominee and he believes "he is going to become a much better candidate than expected" as the race shifts focus to the general election. He believes Republicans will unify around Trump.

"What are they going to do, vote for Hillary?" Lott said. "That's ridiculous ... I'm not going to vote for a socialist, or for Hillary."

U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper, a co-chairman for Kasich's Mississippi campaign, stopped short of endorsing Trump but said, "I will support the nominee of the party, knowing that America cannot endure a Hillary Clinton administration after suffering through eight years of a failed Obama Administration."

Longtime state Republican leader Andy Taggart, also a co-chair of the Kasich Mississippi campaign, said early Wednesday that he was not throwing in the towel yet, and he doesn't believe Trump can beat Clinton in the general election.

"I believe nominating Donald Trump would lose the White House to Hillary and the Senate to Democrat control," Taggart said. "As long as Gov. John Kasich is in the race, I'm for John Kasich and intend to try to help him win our party's nomination."

But later Wednesday, reports broke that Kasich was suspending his campaign.

Lott said a general race between Trump and Clinton is likely to be "ugly."

"He will throw flames, and the Clinton operation is certainly capable of that as well," Lott said.

Nosef said that with Cruz' withdrawal from the race, "thankfully, we have avoided potentially divisive state and national conventions that would have made unity and victory in November nearly impossible."

"Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton still faces a tough challenge from the socialist wing of her own party," Nosef said. "We, however, now turn our attention to healing and unifying the GOP, which is absolutely necessary to taking back the White House."

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said he believes "most Republicans, like most Americans, don't want four more years of Barack Obama policies and the result of those policies."

"There are a lot of Republicans who have concerns about Trump and whether he can win, or whether he would lose so badly as to not only let Mrs. Clinton be president, but also lose a majority of the Senate," Barbour said. "And there are other concerns about what he would do, what his policy proposals would be. I hope the Trump campaign and Trump himself will take advantage of the next couple of months to give some solid, substantive expressions and detailed information about what he proposes to do. I think that would help him move people from being concerned to being comfortable.

"(Trump and Clinton) are the two most negatively perceived nominees of a political party for president of the United States in the history of polling," Barbour said. "But life is a series of choices. And my choice is not going to be Mrs. Clinton."

Contact Geoff Pender at 601-961-7266 or gpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @GeoffPender on Twitter

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