CHICAGO—As the long-shot bid to block Donald Trump from becoming the Republican presidential nominee gains modest momentum, the movement’s leaders claim they have no one specifically in mind to replace him at next month’s national convention.
That doesn’t mean names aren’t circulating and politicians aren’t subtly auditioning for what could be the role of a lifetime. One of those being floated: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. As an early Trump critic who exited the presidential race last September and endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ahead of Wisconsin’s April primary, Walker could appeal to many segments of the fractured party.
“It’s very a sellable notion to many delegates,” said Rick Shaftan, a Republican consultant working with the so-called Free the Delegates effort. “His record in Wisconsin, every conservative loves it.”
Walker checks multiple boxes that delegates might find attractive in a post-Trump search: His confrontations with organized labor have made him a hero for many conservatives, he spent months last year crafting a campaign message and he eagerly embraces the campaign trail like few others.
He also got out of the race before a single voter cast a ballot, creating separation from other candidates, who were outright rejected.
Since the beginning, Walker has been a critic of Trump and framed his exit from the race as a selfless attempt “to clear the field in this race, so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field.”
He then backed Cruz in Wisconsin’s primary, helping deliver what was arguably Trump’s biggest blow of the nomination season.
Walker has strong support from big-money backers in his party, including the billionaire Koch brothers. And he has a close relationship with Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and US House Speaker Paul Ryan, both also Wisconsinites.
On the other side of the coin, Walker got lackluster reviews in the Republican presidential debates, which he participated in, and was the head of a campaign that clearly struggled with financial management.
Further complicating the prospect of taking on the man who handily beat a field of 17 Republicans, anyone who might emerge as a Trump alternative would immediately face the challenge of simultaneously rallying conservatives—especially supporters of second-place finisher Cruz—assuaging skittish donors and reassuring party leaders. Walker, however, appears to be keeping his options open.
Earlier this week, in an act that could be viewed as trying to gain favor with the dump-Trump movement, Walker backed Ryan in calling for convention delegates to be free to vote their conscience.
“Delegates are and should be able to vote the way they see fit,” Walker told reporters this week, after a groundbreaking ceremony for a sausage factory in his state. “We’ll see how things go between now and the convention as to what the next steps are.
Those remarks made Walker one of the highest-ranking Republicans in office other than Ryan to suggest that delegates should be free to vote how they see fit at the convention, even if this year’s primaries and caucuses were supposed to bind many of them to a candidate, at least, for the first round of nomination voting.
As a presidential candidate, Walker signed a pledge to support the nominee, and after the Wisconsin primary said he would support Trump if the billionaire became the nominee. He has since distanced himself from that stance.
“He’s not yet the nominee,” Walker told Wisconsin reporters earlier this month, when Trump came under fire for suggesting a US judge overseeing fraud cases against Trump University is biased because of the judge’s Mexican heritage. “Officially, that won’t happen until the middle of July and so, for me, that’s kind of the time frame on that. In particular, I want to make sure that he renounces what he says—at least in regards to this judge.”
Walker added: “I think for a lot of us, not just Republicans in general, we want to see what he’s going to do between now and the time the convention comes. The sad fact is—it’s just sad in America that we have such poor choices right now.”
Walker’s office didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment about his plans at the July 18 to 21 convention and any interest he might have in again being a presidential candidate.
“They are asking us to do something that we cannot do and that is to go out to sell Trump,” said Kendal Unruh, a high-school government teacher and Cruz delegate from Colorado who is one of the leaders of the dump Trump effort. “We all know that he does not define what conservative means.”
Unruh said Priebus should be sending her “roses” because she’s doing what she believes is a favor for the national party. “We know Donald Trump cannot win,” she said.
For now, Unruh said the movement isn’t backing any candidate and doesn’t need to. “Once the vacuum is created, we will have some leadership jump in,” she said.
Other forces are also working to try to fan the flames.
Courageous Conservatives PAC, a super political action committee associated with Shaftan, on Thursday started running the first ads calling for delegates required to vote for Trump on the convention’s first ballot to be unbound from those obligations.