Strategist Donna Brazile warned Sunday that the 2024 Republican primary election is looking to be a repeat of the 2016 election with former President Trump as the frontrunner.
“2024 is now looking like 2016 all over again when 17 candidates sought the nomination,” Brazile said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Brazile, who served as the Democratic National Convention chairperson in 2016, said that while the primary elections often come down to “money” and “momentum,” it “actually comes down to thinking about voters on a shopping spree.” She noted that the GOP 2024 primary has many candidates, but most people are only familiar with Trump.
“You already have a brand, a brand called Donald Trump and everybody knows that brand,” she said.
“But right now, the Republican Party is faced with a lot of candidates that people don’t really know and who they really know is Donald Trump and his biggest vulnerability might be the legal challenges that he faced,” she added.
Trump has faced an onslaught of legal challenges since leaving office, including being charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records earlier this year. He also faces two federal investigations into his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol and alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Reporting from CNN last week indiciated that special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents is advancing after reporting suggests that authorities have a recording of Trump discussing a classified document about Iran.
Trump has maintained a comfortable lead in recent polling about a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary. RealClearPolitics shows Trump’s polling average across multiple polls as about 53 percent, well ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who is second place in the polling average with about 22 percent.