More Republicans are working to undermine Trump endorsements

From Nebraska and Idaho to Pennsylvania and Georgia, Republicans have been actively campaigning — or quietly maneuvering — against Trump’s picks in a way that could undermine his sway over the party.One prominent example came Tuesday when Trump’s endorsed candidate for Nebraska governor, Charles Herbster, lost in the GOP primary after significant opposition from Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) — the first of what could be several potential setbacks in coming weeks for the former president.In several cases, some of Trump’s own Cabinet members and advisers, along with other longtime allies in the Republican Party, are working or stumping for candidates running against Trump-endorsed candidates.In his sharpest political challenge yet to Trump, for example, former vice president Mike Pence announced Friday that he would campaign for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who is seeking reelection over Trump endorsee David Perdue. Trump has targeted Kemp — a key figure on his political enemies list — for refusing his efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia, but has struggled to help Perdue gain traction ahead of Georgia’s May 24 primary contest.In Pennsylvania, former Trump secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a strong Trump ally, are stumping for Senate candidate David McCormick, who has also hired a coterie of Trump’s former advisers — even though Trump is backing candidate and television personality Mehmet Oz in next Tuesday’s Republican primary there.And the Club for Growth, an influential Republican organization with deep pockets that had been aligned with Trump, is also buttressing Kathy Barnette, a third GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. Budowich did not answer multiple questions about others working against Trump, including McCarthy.And the efforts to undermine Trump’s chosen candidates have been even more extensive behind the scenes.One little-noticed House race in Washington state provides a case study of the covert machinations at play in a growing number of contests involving Trump-endorsed candidates and their rivals.Sometime after a Trump-endorsed House candidate, Joe Kent, announced his candidacy for Washington state’s 3rd District last year, McCarthy advised one Republican lawmaker in a private conversation not to endorse him, according to multiple people briefed on the conversation, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private exchange. The one loss he has recognized was Tuesday’s defeat of Herbster, his pick in the Nebraska governor’s race.Many of Trump’s advisers fear grim weeks to come, where his preferred candidates could lose in Georgia and Pennsylvania.Ricketts, who had an oppositional relationship with Herbster long before the Trump endorsement, plans to campaign over the next week for Kemp in Georgia, along with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie — a fact that has also angered the former president.In another message Wednesday, Trump denounced all three as “RINO’s” — meaning “Republicans in Name Only” — and claimed falsely that they were already in Georgia campaigning for Kemp, who has declined to embrace Trump’s false claims that he won Georgia in 2020.“That tells you all you need to know about what you are getting Georgia — just a continuation of bad elections and a real RINO if you vote for Brian Kemp,” Trump wrote on his social network.Marc Short, a longtime aide to Pence and former director of legislative affairs in the Trump White House, is also working for Kemp in Georgia.The Republican Governors Association, led by Ducey and Ricketts, has also been supporting Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s reelection bid against Trump endorsee Lt. Gov.