Public opinion analyst says a centrist GOP primary challenge would not last long against Trump

Public opinion analyst Karlyn Bowman on Wednesday said that a centrist primary challenge to President Trump would likely not last long due to historical precedent. 

“Certainly both Reagan and Pat Buchanan were running from the right, so this would be something new, and it won’t go very far,” Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.” 

Before he was president, Ronald Reagan challenged then-President Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primary, while Pat Buchanan challenged then-President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 Republican primary. 

“If you challenge an incumbent president, you have to deal with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of mobilization,” Marist Poll director Lee Mirinigoff said in the same segment. “That’s not the middle.” 

Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has said he would like to see a Republican challenge Trump in the party’s 2020 primary, revealed on Tuesday that he would not he would not challenge the president. 

“It’s a difficult path anyway. The [Republican National Committee] and the president’s campaign are now melded, they’re trying to do everything they can to squelch any opposition,” Flake said.

Other potential GOP primary challengers that have been floated including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.).

— Julia Manchester