OAJ Hot Take: ‘None of these candidates’ in a Changing and Frightening GOP
The piece below is part of our weekly blog post series written by the Open-Air Journal team where we explore issues at Heller, current events, or whatever is presently on our minds.
Content Warning: This article contains discussion of abortion. Reader discretion is advised.
Last month, Nevada voters cast their ballots for their Republican Party Primary. In this race, the only candidate listed was former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. In a primary where former President Donald Trump did not even appear, Haley still lost to the “none of these candidates” ballot choice, giving political junkies one of the most awkwardly funny campaign moments since Hillary Clinton’s “Pokémon-Go-to-the-polls.”
While “none of these candidates” operated as a stand-in for Trump, voters showed just how far right and authoritarian the GOP has moved from neoconservatism in recent election cycles. Neoconservatism is defined by social and fiscal conservatism at home and interventionism abroad. In pre-Trump elections, the standard Republican platform was to reduce corporate taxes, increase political pressure abroad, and keep healthcare private.
Across the spectrum of GOP candidates during this election cycle, Haley represents the pre-Trump Republican Party. Of Trump’s competitors, Haley stayed in the race the longest, only bowing out after multiple “Super Tuesday” defeats. She has been far less successful than Trump, winning only the Washington D.C. and Vermont primaries. In pre-Trump elections, she may have been more successful.
However, the Trump presidency changed the party drastically. With so-called “America first” policies, Trumpism focused on ending deals that “do not work,” stepping away from the neoconservatism familiar to the GOP. However, Trump’s more radical political beliefs - like his love of autocracy - showed during his term in office and on Jan. 6, 2021. Seeing once-orthodox candidates and platforms sidelined for more radical options, the Republican Party has changed for the worse.
One prominent instance of the right-ward shift is the party’s evolving view on abortion. The GOP has long viewed themselves as the “pro-life” party. Former presidential candidate and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum had a different stance than previous candidates. Burgum supports near-complete bans on abortion, only allowing exceptions for the parent’s health complications and a six-week window if the pregnancy comes from sexual violence and incest.
Though Burgum was unsuccessful in the 2024 election cycle, his more popular competitors also took extreme stances. For example, Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis supported 6-week and 15-week bans, respectively. These platforms are also similar to Trump’s. Although he has been vague publicly, he privately supports a 16-week ban. In comparison to previous candidates like Utah Senator and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the current GOP is different than their predecessors, especially in post-Roe America.
While Romney and former Arizona Senator John McCain were anti-abortion candidates, they still made some concessions. Romney for example said “I am pro-life and believe that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother” but did not call for bans. Similarly, McCain was anti-abortion but opposed overturning Roe v. Wade, recognizing that it would make abortions more dangerous. Until the Trump presidency, exceptions to a national abortion ban were common for Republican presidential candidates. The most recent class of candidates, however, were vastly different.
Another area of difference is climate change. During the George W. Bush administration, he addressed climate change through greenhouse gas reduction policies. Though this is just one example, for Haley to be more aligned with Bush by supporting action against climate change but still losing in the primaries to Trump, says plenty about the GOP’s changing climate politics. Trump’s dismissal of any evidence of the climate crisis, along with a projected win this November and an intention to dismantle public programming, represents a stark departure from presidents like Bush.
Even long-time linchpins of the GOP establishment like former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney have felt the changing political climate. Before Trump’s presidency, Cheney was the gold standard of the modern Republican Party. However, her declining approval among GOP voters since attacking Donald Trump shows the toxicity of the current GOP. Regardless of Cheney’s controversial political past, being blackballed for calling Trump and the MAGA movement as the insurrectionists they are is exemplary of an increasingly blind GOP that subscribes to “alternative facts.”
Whether excluding Cheney for dissent or figures like Haley failing in the MAGA era of politics, clearly this is no longer your parents’ Republican Party. The GOP has transitioned from a neoconservative party to one more radical and authoritarian, and while neither is healthy for a liberal democracy, Americans should be concerned.