'Does that mean I leave it blank?' Republican senator will not vote for Trump

20 March 2024

A Republican senator doubled down on his refusal to vote for Donald Trump in November during an interview earlier this week.

US Senator Todd Young (R-IN) — who Indystar reports has not backed the ex-president since his attempt to overturn the 2020 election — told a local reporter Monday, "My response is, at some point, principled conservatives need to incentivize our party, the Republican Party, to nominate somebody that principled conservatives can actually believe in. Stated differently, I’m tired of having my vote taken for granted. I think a lot of Hoosiers are."

According to Mediaite, the senator emphasized, "I won’t be voting for Biden. I also won’t be voting for Trump." He added, "So, does that mean I leave it blank? Does that mean I identify another conservative who’s almost certain not to be the next president of the United States and write them in? I haven’t decided that, and I think that’s a largely unimportant point. I don’t know who goes in that line, if anyone."

IndyStar reported in May last year the Indiana lawmaker knew then he wouldn't endorse Trump. The newspaper noted Young "has positioned himself as a foreign affairs expert while in the Senate, and Trump's comments about Russian president Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine seem to have drawn the senator's ire."

Since then, Trump has stood by Putin in Russia's aggression against Ukraine, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still has yet to bring the US Senate-approved bipartisan legislation — which includes aid for Ukraine — to the House floor.

IndyStar also noted that "Young and Trump have not been political allies," and the GOP senator "famously told election 2020 deniers 'the law matters' when confronted on Capitol Hill about his decision to vote to certify the election results."

Furthermore, Indystar notes, Young was not backed by Trump during his 2022 re-election campaign.

Reuters reported last month that, like Young, "Nationally, some 18% of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published in January said they would not vote if Biden and Trump were their choices.

University of South Carolina political science professor Kirk Randazzo told Reuters that once Trump secured the presidency in 2016, the GOP "moved away from policies and principles to become personality-centric."

He emphasized, "And that personality is Donald Trump."

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