(KEK) Rick Santorum is back — the ‘patron saint’ of every 2024 long-shot campaign

The 2012 Republican presidential candidate is back in the conversation in Iowa.

By ADAM WREN12/07/2023

Rick Santorum’s ears are burning.

The 2012 Republican presidential candidate who surged from single digits in November of 2011 to win the Iowa caucuses the following January is back in the conversation in the first caucus state.

The press is calling. His 2012 magic act has also been mentioned in no fewer than four Des Moines Register pieces about the caucuses in recent weeks. Advisers to Vivek Ramaswamy and Mike Pence, before he dropped out, have invoked his name publicly. And, according to Santorum, at least two campaigns have reached out to him within the last few weeks for advice.

Santorum declined to say which campaigns they were. But in a primary defined by its low-polling also-rans, calling the former Pennsylvania senator would make sense.

“I’m the patron saint of all these guys who are looking for a longshot win, which is great,” said Santorum.

In a campaign where all of Donald Trump’s opponents are scrambling for evidence that they have a shot of overcoming his enormous lead, Santorum is a proof point. But the fact other candidates and their supporters bring him up is also a sign of just how desperate the race has become — with Trump’s rivals relying on a pre-Trump mindset of how politics works, back when the GOP did not revolve around a Trumpian gravitational pull.

“That was back when we all subscribed to this lane theory of politics, which Trump has sort of abandoned,,” said David Kochel, who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns in Iowa. Now, he said, the primary “has to do with personality and celebrity. He is the axis around which voters determine who they are.”

The outlines of Santorum’s unlikely victory are remarkable. Nearly twelve years later, you can still detect the hard edges of bitterness in Santorum’s voice as he talks about his effort….

Fast forward more than a decade, and a number of non-Trump campaigns are trying to emulate his approach. Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy biotech entrepreneur, has said he’ll do at least another 200 Iowa events before the caucuses. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday notched stops in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. Doug Burgum, the wealthy governor of North Dakota, is criss-crossing the state, too.

And campaigns are not only copying his example.They are invoking Santorum explicitly as evidence they have a shot. Senior officials from sputtering campaigns ranging from Ramaswamy’s to Mike Pence’s this year have all pointed to his come-from-behind victory as reason to believe, even as candidates not named Donald Trump languish 30 points or more behind the frontrunner…

“Recall, Rick Santorum was at 5 percent in 2011,”Marc Short, a Pence senior advisertold reporters in the spin room following the Reagan Library Debate in Simi Valley, Calif., in September..

Before the primary began — before it became clear that so many longshots would need a Santorum-like miracle in Iowa — Santorum says just one candidate in the 2024 field asked him for his opinion on the race: Pence, whose six-month campaign also leaned heavily on Iowa and hoped to replicate Santorum’s success. (Santorum said he advised Pence not to run: “Mike’s a really fine guy, and he’s a good friend. I just didn’t think this was the time for him to run. And I encouraged him to let this election pass.”)

That Santorum’s caucus victory is now getting more air is somewhat ironic. It happens, of course, in a year when Trump has so dominated the field that any jockeying in Iowa seems to be about who will finish second or third behind him…

At the moment, Santorum thinks Trump is going to win Iowa. But he doesn’t think it’s impossible that someone will catch him.

“If someone can catch fire at the end, there’s a chance for that landslide type of activity that I experienced,” he said! .

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/07/rick-santorum-is-back-the-patron-saint-of-every-2024-longshot-campaign-00130558

Desperado (2013 Remaster)

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?

You've been out ridin' fences for so long now

Oh, you're a hard one, but I know that you got your reasons

These things that are pleasin' you can hurt you somehow

[Chorus]

Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy

She'll beat you if she's able

You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet

Now it seems to me some fine things

Have been laid upon your table

But you only want the ones that you can't get

Trump: I won’t be a dictator ‘except for day one’

It’s not clear if he meant that statement to be a promise, a quip or a threat.

By GISELLE RUHIYYIH EWING 12/05/2023 11:31 PM EST

Donald Trump said Tuesday he will not be a dictator “except for day one” if he returns to office in 2025.

In a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the former president was pressed on whether he would disavow taking retributive action against all his enemies if he reentered the Oval Office. He initially shied away from responding, but when asked a second time said he would only be a dictator on the first day of his second term. He emphasized that it would be for two specific issues.

“I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said. “Other than that, I am not a dictator.”

The remarks may have been an attempt to defuse an issue that has bubbled up in recent weeks, with various news outlets spotlighting an authoritarian bent of Trump’s proposed second-term approach. But they were also quickly spotlighted by President Joe Biden’s campaign, suggesting that they felt Trump had provided them with ample fodder of his intentions.

“Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he will do if he’s reelected and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. Americans should believe him,” Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

Trump also told Hannity he does not expect President Biden to make it as the Democratic nominee in 2024, citing the president’s mental and physical wellbeing.

“I personally don’t think he makes it physically,” Trump said. “Mentally I would say he’s possibly equally as bad and maybe worse.”

Trump, 77, took aim at Biden as the current president faces mounting questions about the implications of his advanced age. Biden, who turned 81 in November, has repeatedly brushed off concerns about his age and ability to adequately perform his duties.

When asked who he thought would replace Biden as the Democratic nominee come next November, Trump indirectly pointed to Gavin Newsom, referencing the California governor’s debate last week.

“I saw him on the debate the other night,” Trump said. “He is slick, but has no facts. I thought he did well.”

Earlier in the day, Biden appeared at a fundraiser where he said he may not be running for reelection right now if he didn’t think Trump would be the Republican nominee. Pressed by reporters whether that meant he would drop out if Trump did as well, he said: “No, not now.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/05/trump-dictator-day-one-00130310

>>20039439

Trump’s ‘dictator’ remark puts 2024 campaign right where Biden wants it

The president’s team used the remarks by the GOP frontrunner to showcase why Biden views Trump as a threat to democracy.

JONATHAN LEMIRE and MYAH WARD. 12/07/2023

Donald Trump keeps returning the 2024 presidential race to the ground where Joe Biden wants to fight it.

After Trump told a Fox News town hall he would not be a dictator upon returning to office “other than Day One,” the Biden campaign pounced. It highlighted Trump’s remarks as another moment in which the GOP frontrunner showcased his undemocratic and dangerous plans for a possible second term.

Biden has expressed his fear to confidants that Trump would have unchecked power if he were to return to office, according to three people granted anonymity to speak about private discussions. Trump would likely have at least one Republican-controlled chamber in Congress, a conservative Supreme Court, the allegiance of true-believer staff members and GOP state officials — and the knowledge he could be impeached twice and charged criminally in four jurisdictions and still claim power. He’d view that as a mandate, Biden has said privately, and abuse power at home and change how America is viewed abroad.

All three people said the stakes have escalated in the president’s mind as he’s watched the Republican Party remain in Trump’s thrall despite Jan. 6 and the revelations about what his predecessor has in store for the future.

“It’s coming back full circle — that in the president’s mind, this is the moral authority for the race. This is an existential threat. This is the reason he ran initially, and the reason — with Donald Trump running — he’s running again,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster for Biden’s campaign in 2020.

“The president has always believed that it was his duty to get the nation beyond Trump,” said one of the three people close to him, who spoke with Biden about his views on Trump and was granted anonymity to speak about private discussions. “He had hoped 2020 would have done it but it didn’t. So he has to do it again.”

Some Democrats have urged the reelection team to highlight other issues. This past weekend, a group of the party’s governors used its annual retreat to urge Biden to focus on issues like abortion, not Trump.

But while the Biden camp will continue to draw issue-specific contrasts, the president himself has made clear he wants to frame the election ahead as a battle for democracy itself. The GOP frontrunner continues to provide ample opportunity for Biden to return to this familiar theme.

This issue fueled Biden’s successful 2020 run, which he deemed “a battle for the soul of the nation.” And despite pushback from some Democrats, Biden leaned in hard again on that argument during last year’s midterms, warning that the extremist “MAGA Republicans” posed a threat to the republic’s foundation and rights…

“Folks have forgotten a lot of anxiety that they had about a second Trump term in 2020,” said Brandon Weathersby, the presidential communications director at American Bridge 21st Century, a top Dem super PAC. “And I believe as he continues to talk about his plans — and again, be very explicit about his plans to install an authoritarian regime — that does make it that much more salient for voters as we talk about it, and as we try to lay out the choice for voters in November.” (There’s the plan again!)

Since declaring his candidacy in 2019, Biden has repeatedly touched on the idea that the nation’s democracy was under attack — and believed that voters would respond. His triumph in 2020 and the Democrats’ strong 2022 showing has validated that approach, his campaign believes. And Biden believes that he is the best candidate to deliver that message again next year….

these people are literally insane!

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/07/trumps-dictator-2024-campaign-biden-00130488

Top Wyoming official slams brakes on court labeling Trump ‘insurrectionist’:‘outrageous’

December 7, 2023.1/2

Wyoming’s Secretary of State Chuck Gray is working to rectify a Colorado judge’s ruling that labeled former President Trump an “insurrectionist” in an election case the Wyoming Republican argued should have been dismissed from the start.

“As chief election officials of our states, [Secretaries of State] have to stand up for the electoral process in our republic, and this is pivotal to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” Gray told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.

“I ran on election integrity, and that’s why the people of Wyoming voted me into office. And I’m following through on that, and defending the truth here, and making sure that these outrageous, frivolous lawsuits that the radical left is bringing and trying to remove President Trump from the ballot, that they don’t succeed.”

Gray filed an amicus curiae brief, otherwise known as a friend of the court brief,with the Colorado Supreme Courtlast week that argues a Colorado District Court made a mistake when labeling Trump an “insurrectionist” in a legal case that worked to remove Trump’s name from the state’s primary ballot. Gray was joined by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in filing the brief.

Theamicus brief callson the Colorado Supreme Court to vacate the district court’s order and “direct the District Court to dismiss the petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”

“It really should have been dismissed immediately, the case is frivolous. And instead we got this 95-page finding from this local judge there in Colorado and with the principle of issue preclusion, this could be really used against President Trump,” Gray said. “So it’s very important that this is just dismissed in its entirety. And that’s what we really try to delve into with this amicus brief … and we’re really proud that Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Ohio Secretary of State LaRose signed on.”

Colorado District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace rejected the group’s calls last month to remove Trump’s name from the state’s primary ballot but ruled that Trump engaged in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when he was still president. The judge argued that there was a dearth of evidence showing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to presidential candidates.

“The Court holds there is scant direct evidence regarding whether the Presidency is one of the positions subject to disqualification,” she wrote.

Gray told Fox News Digital the case should have been dismissed from the get-go, let alone the judge proceeding with the suit and ruling Trump engaged in an insurrection.

“The frivolous lawsuits, they’re happening around the country, and it’s imperative that voters in one state not be affected by judgments in other states. And if you think about it, preventing an eligible candidate in one state for being able to attain electoral votes affects every other state. And preventing a candidate from being on the ballot, primary or caucus, artificially will alter momentum,” Gray said. …

https://dnyuz.com/2023/12/07/top-wyoming-official-slams-brakes-on-court-labeling-trump-insurrectionist-outrageous/

>>20039718

2/2

Gray explained to Fox News Digital that the Colorado judge admitted the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack’s report into evidence during proceedings, which he says was a congressional committee mired in bias despite being categorized as “bipartisan.”

“Republican leadership, which was the minority party at the time, had no appointments to the January 6 Committee report. And that was a large part of the 95 pages that the local judge there considered … so that’s the other thing that we contest in this is: the inclusion of the January 6 Commission report. I believe it was biased from the start,” Gray said.

The brief outlines in a footnote that the two Republicans who served on the committee, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, no longer serve in Congress.

“It should be noted that while the January 6th Committee originally boasted two House republicans among its membership, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, neither have remained in the House of Representatives, Kinzinger having chosen not to run for reelection, and Cheney having been overwhelmingly voted out of office by the people of Wyoming,” the footnote states.

The brief’s text argued that Republicans, the minority party at the time of the committee’s inception, “did not have any appointees” to the committee, and argued the report has increasingly shown its bias “as more security camera footage of January 6th continues to be released to the general public.”

Gray argued the Colorado case, and similar ones in other states such as Minnesota, are “weaponizing” the 14th Amendment to silence conservatives.

“That is a very troubling trend in our country and it’s something as Wyoming Secretary of State, a public official, it’s very important that we weigh in on the weaponization of American law, the weaponization of the 14th Amendment against the left’s political opponents. And that’s what they’re doing, the left is targeting their political opponents with the way they’ve weaponized law. We’ve seen that with these indictments and then also the way they’ve weaponized the 14th Amendment. It’s really an outrageous, unprecedented full court press by the radical left to weaponize law in this country and this is another example of it,” he said.

Gray said he hopes that Democrats, regardless of whether they dislike Trump’s political stances, understand that weaponizing American law sets a precedent that “could be used against anyone in the United States.”

“The radical left has just become so consumed by this Trump derangement syndrome. And this is just another example of it. But I certainly hope and pray deep down, that they see why this is wrong. And today it’s conservative Republicans and President Trump,but this is a precedent that could be used against anyone in the United States, and we as conservatives must stand up for the truth. And that’s what we’re doing with this amicus brief,” he said.

The Wyoming Republican’s amicus curiae filing isnot the first time he has taken actionto call out what he describes as a “disgusting strategy of election interference,” providing Fox News Digital with aletter he sent Republican New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlanin September. There were similar efforts in New Hampshire to invoke the 14th Amendment to bar Trump’s name from appearing on the ballot, which Scanlan ultimately rejected.

“The weaponization of the 14th Amendment with frivolous lawsuitslike the one in Colorado, it justundermines the entire election process. And that’s why we’re doing this,” Gray said.

https://dnyuz.com/2023/12/07/top-wyoming-official-slams-brakes-on-court-labeling-trump-insurrectionist-outrageous

>>20039718

Chuck Gray (Wyoming politician)Chuck Gray is an American politician and the secretary of state of Wyoming, having won the 2022 election unopposed. Gray was previously a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives representing the 57th District.

Chuck Gray: 24th Secretary of State of Wyoming

Incumbent

Assumed office: January 2, 2023

Governor: Mark Gordon

Preceded by: Karl Allred

Member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from the 57th district

In office

January 10, 2017 – January 2, 2023

Preceded by: Thomas Lockhart

Succeeded by: Jeanette Ward

Personal details

Political party: Republican

Education: University of Pennsylvania (BS)

Career

Prior to his election to the Wyoming House of Representatives, Gray had a radio talk show on Casper radio station KVOC.[1]

Wyoming House of Representatives

Gray challenged incumbent State Representative Thomas Lockhart in the Republican primary but was defeated, receiving 48% of the vote to Lockhart's 52%.[2]

When Lockhart announced his retirement, Gray again announced his candidacy for the seat in 2016. He defeated Ray Pacheco in the Republican primary with 59% of the vote and defeated Democrat Audrey Cotherman in the general election with 64% of the vote.[3]

Gray ran for reelection in 2018. In the Republican primary he faced former Casper Mayor Daniel Sandoval, who defeated with 61% of the vote.[4][5] Gray defeated Democrat Jane Ifland in the general election with 61% of the vote.[6]

In 2020, Gray was unopposed in the Republican primary. He again faced Democrat Jane Ifland in the general election and defeated her with 69% of the vote.[7]

In his first session as a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives, he was the lead sponsor of the ultrasound bill, the first pro-life bill passed in 30 years. He was also the lead sponsor ofWyoming's voter ID law, which was signed into law in 2021. During his time in the legislature, he served on numerous committees, including Minerals, Business & Economic Development; Agriculture, State and Public Lands; Revenue; Judiciary; and Management Audit.

Wyoming Secretary of State

In March 2021, Gray announced that he was running for the Republican nomination for Wyoming's at-large congressional district in the 2022 election, challenging incumbent Liz Cheney in a primary after the Wyoming GOP censured Cheney for her vote to impeach Donald Trump.[8] In September 2021, Donald Trump endorsed Harriet Hageman in the primary which led to Gray dropping out to consolidate the anti-Cheney vote around Hageman.[9]

In March 2022, Gray announced he would run for Wyoming Secretary of State in 2022. He was endorsed by Donald Trump and he wonthe Republican primary.[10][11] Secretary Gray is known for his conservative record. He is a six-time CPAC award winner, winning the award for his conservative voting record each year in the legislature. He has also received Wyoming Right to Life's Platinum Award for his pro-life record.

Political positions

Gray has been described by the Associated Press as "one of Wyoming's most Trump-like legislators". Gray has advocated banning ballot drop boxes and instituting mandatory hand-counted election audits.[12][13]

God Bless This Patriot

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Gray_(Wyoming_politician)

>>20039718

TARA NETHERCOTT CHALLENGES CHUCK GRAY ON ELECTION INTEGRITY

WRITTEN BY CALEB NELSON ON AUG. 10, 2022

IN A RECENT WYOMING REPUBLICAN SECRETARY OF STATE 2022 CANDIDATE FORUM HOSTED AT THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB IN CASPER, SEN. TARA NETHERCOTT, R-CHEYENNE, AND REP. CHUCK GRAY, R-CASPER, SPARRED OVER QUESTIONS OF ELECTION INTEGRITY.

The Secretary of State is elected to a four-year term and oversees the administration of matters that include the registration of business entities, statewide elections, lobbyist registrations, ethics filings, and campaign finance (among others).

Mr. Gray states early in the discussion, “I’m running a campaign focused on trying to improve our election systems. The Secretary of State oversees elections in our state.”

Gray has been serving in the Wyoming House of Representatives (District 57) since 2017.

Prior to his political career, Gray had a radio talk show in Casper on KVOC.

“That’s why we need to ban ballot drop boxes, which are a vehicle for ballot harvesting. We need to have paper ballots. We need to have a hand audit of the count,” Gray argues. Gray’s campaign for Secretary of State, he says, is all about improving election systems.

His position assumes there are widespread problems with Wyoming’s voting and election processes.

It also assumes, by his own characterization of the 2020 election, the United States needs to improve

election security because of election fraud.

Claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election have been debunked repeatedly.

Films like Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules have been widely discredited.

For example, seventeen Republican Michigan lawmakers formally asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to investigate the claims of the film.

Numerous experts who have reviewed the film say 2000 Mules is unreliable and does not prove that ballot drop box fraud took place in five key states. Despite the film’s dramatic presentation, it reaches conclusions not supported by its own material.

Still, Gray says, “I think it’s pretty clear what happened and we’ve been doing 2000 Mules screenings around the state.”

Gray also blames the media for refusing to acknowledge issues of election integrity even though media and news organizations have investigated these issues to the point of exhaustion.

Ms. Nethercott’s position is significantly different from Gray’s. Nethercott is a Wyoming Senator and a practicing attorney. She graduated from the University of Wyoming Law School in 2009, where she was student body president.

“There has been no objective evidence to indicate that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen,” Nethercott says.(No wonder she lost)

“We know that the best experts in the world have evaluated this—all the money that Americans know has been devoted to evaluating this issue—andthere’s been no persuasive evidence brought forward to indicate that the election was stolen,” Nethercott argues.

DEFENDING THE CONCLUSIONS OF MANY REPUBLICANS-THAT THE 2020 ELECTION WAS NOT STOLEN, NETHERCOTT SAYS, “CONTINUED ALLEGATIONS TO THE CONTRARY ARE UNDERMINING OUR COUNTRY.” AUGUST 10, 2022

https://mybighornbasin.com/tara-nethercott-challenges-chuck-gray-on-election-integrity/