Donald Trump may be leading in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but much of the GOP’s establishment is mobilizing to try to block him. And should those efforts fail, many prominent Republicans are saying they won’t support Trump if he is the nominee. Some are even floating the idea of an anti-Trump third party.
Most times, even after fierce nomination battles and raucous conventions, parties have come together for the general-election fight. The bitter 1952 convention fight between Dwight Eisenhower and Sen. Robert Taft didn’t hurt Eisenhower that fall. In 1976, after Ronald Reagan fell just short of taking the GOP nomination from President Gerald Ford, he endorsed Ford in a memorable concession speech (although Ford went on to lose to Jimmy Carter in an exceedingly close race that November). And in 1968, even after a violence-marred convention and the third-party challenge of George Wallace, enough of the Democratic coalition came together in time for Hubert Humphrey to almost defeat Richard Nixon.
While it’s been a long time since a significant portion of a major party has rejected its own leading candidate, it’s hardly unprecedented in American political history. Here’s a rundown of notable splits, bolts, splinters and other major-party schisms, starting with the birth of the modern Democratic/Republican era. (Note: We excluded third-party movements, such as Wallace’s 1968 campaign and Ross Perot’s 1992 run, that originated outside the two major parties and weren’t explicit rejections of a particular nominee.)
1860: After no fewer than three conventions, Democrats split into Northern and Southern wings over the issue of slavery. Each wing nominated its own candidates for president and vice president, but the split virtually ensured the victory of Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln.
1864: A group of Radical Republicans, dissatisfied with Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War, broke away and formed their own “Radical Democracy Party.” They nominated explorer and former Army general John C. Frémont, who had been the Republican candidate in 1856. But Frémont withdrew from the race in September because he was concerned the split could throw the election to the Democrats; in the end, Lincoln easily won a second term.
[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”More on the GOP presidential battle” style=”outline” color=”primary” size=”lg” align=”left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewresearch.org%2Ffact-tank%2F2016%2F03%2F11%2Fthis-years-gop-presidential-battle-isnt-the-first-or-even-the-deepest-party-divide%2F%3Futm_source%3DPew%2BResearch%2BCenter%26utm_campaign%3D3507cf754e-Weekly_March_17_20163_17_2016%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_term%3D0_3e953b9b70-3507cf754e-399507077|title:More%20on%20the%20GOP%20presidential%20battle|target:%20_blank”][vc_message message_box_style=”3d” message_box_color=”turquoise”]By Drew DeSilver a senior writer at Pew Research Center, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Mar. 18, 2016
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Sometimes Buddy Nevins is smart. Other times he is a complete idiot. The day after Hillary won a massive landslide primary victory here in Florida, Buddy complained that he did not believe that the Hillary voters were enthusiastic about their candidate. That is what he wrote in another one of his articles. Buddy deliberately failed to mention that Hillary earned and won over 1,094,000 votes this past Tuesday. 530,000 more votes than that old fart Bernie got. When I wrote back to Buddy, and I asked him how he expected Hillary voters should have acted; Nevins showed he had no balls and decided to write nothing about my question. Buddy throws rocks and then runs away. What a complete GOP Tea Bagger loser Buddy Nevins is!