The Party Reacts: The Strategic Nature of Endorsements of Donald Trump

Abstract

Many scholars expect that the “party decides” on presidential nominees who are both electable and willing to pursue an agenda acceptable to the supporting coalition. By most accounts, the nomination of Donald Trump does not fit these expectations. Did most party insiders view Trump as unelectable and unacceptable? If so, how did the Republican Party coalition react to his unlikely nomination? To address these questions, we content analyze endorsements of Trump and construct an endorsement network of the coalition behind Trump’s candidacy. We show that Trump received little support from party insiders prior to his nomination, and that policy considerations were relatively unimportant to Trump supporters throughout the election. Instead, when faced with an undesirable nominee, party insiders reacted by supporting Trump for electoral reasons. Our results suggest that party insiders are not immutable arbiters in presidential primaries and that most will prioritize partisan ambitions over policy goals.