Conservative ex-Georgia lt. gov calls for fellow Republicans to 'demonstrate our independence from Trump'

07 July 2023

The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist and scathing critic of the MAGA movement, hasn't been shy about attacking former President Donald Trump as a total disaster for the Republican Party and the conservative movement. But Wilson also believes that Trump hasn't lost his "stranglehold" on the GOP and that his former party will ultimately "bend the knee" to the ex-president in 2024.

Despite his legal problems, Trump still has countless loyalists in the GOP. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) is quick to warn fellow Republicans against crossing Trump. And Kari Lake, the far-right conspiracy theorist who lost Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial race to Democratic now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, has even gone so far as to say that her party should cancel its 2024 presidential primary and unite around Trump immediately.

But in an op-ed published by CNN's website on July 5, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a conservative Republican, warns that the GOP is in trouble if it fails to show "independence from Trump."

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel is demanding that participants in the first GOP presidential debate sign a "loyalty pledge" and agree to ultimately support the nominee, whoever that person turns out to be. Duncan considers that a silly idea that has created "a lot of angst" in his party.

Duncan, however, believes that GOP candidates should adhere to some "bedrock principles," and they don't include unquestioning loyalty to Trump.

"First, every GOP presidential candidate must state, without equivocation, that the 2020 election was not stolen," Duncan argues. "No more dancing around the issue with a wink and a nod about 'concerns' about COVID-era policies opening the door to potential fraud…. Second, every Republican candidate must be unwilling to support a convicted felon as the standard bearer for the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan…. Finally, the field needs to speak with one clear voice about the ongoing war in Europe, and that voice must unequivocally stand with Ukraine…. Yet Trump has refused to side with Ukraine in their war."

Georgia's former lieutenant governor stresses that for his party, no good can come from making devotion to Trump a litmus test in 2024.

"It's long past time for the Republican Party to demonstrate our independence from former President Trump," Duncan declares. "His politics, personality and policy have contributed to a losing streak for the GOP that extends to the 2018 midterms. To reverse the direction of our country, we must first change the leadership of our party."

Read Geoff Duncan's full op-ed for CNN at this link.

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