Donald Trump on Friday was on the net endorsements for his White House bid from a number of House Republicans from Pennsylvania, the first lawmakers to formally support the former president since his federal arraignment 10 days ago.
Trump, the clear frontrunner in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was also endorsed by North Carolina Lt. Gov. and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who drew loud applause when he announced his decision on stage at an annual conference of religious conservatives.
“This country needs a fighter,” Robinson said. “Someone willing to go on the world stage, walk boldly, strong, waving the American flag, saying, ‘Here come the American people, and we’re in charge again.'”
Trump last week pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal counts related to his retention of classified records, and alleged efforts to prevent the government from returning them, after leaving the White House on 2021. Some of his former Republican allies, such as former Attorney General William Barr, said the indictment against Trump was “disastrous.”
Yet many other Republicans, including most of Trump’s primary opponents, are reluctant to use the frontrunner’s legal troubles against him. The latest endorsements further indicate that even after becoming the first former president to face federal criminal charges, Trump’s grip on a large portion of the Republican Party remains strong.
As if to drive that point home, the same crowd that cheered Robinson was also booing another GOP presidential candidate, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, when he criticized Trump for a “failure to lead.”
“You can boo all you want,” Christie, one of Trump’s leading GOP critics, told the audience at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC “But here’s the thing. Our faith teaches us that people need to take responsibility for what they do,” said Christie.
Those remarks came shortly after the Trump campaign announced its “Pennsylvania Federal Leadership Team,” including five current House Republicans from the Keystone State: Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler and John Joyce.
Reschenthaler, the House Republican chief deputy whip, is the second member of the chamber’s GOP leadership to endorse Trump after House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.
Endorsements from more than half of Pennsylvania’s House Republican delegation brought Trump’s total number of congressional endorsements to 69, including 10 senators, according to an NBC News tally. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest Republican primary competitor, has so far secured five congressional endorsements.
Trump’s Pennsylvania coalition also includes former Rep. Fred Keller and Carla Sands, the former US ambassador to Denmark, said the campaign.
This is not the first time Trump has won more support among Republican officials after being charged with crimes. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., endorsed Trump in April on the same day he was scheduled to appear in Manhattan on state charge of falsifying business records.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., endorsed Trump days before his latest arraignment in Florida on federal charges.
Polls of the GOP primary field showed Trump expansion his leadership after his first accusation. A CNN poll conducted after Trump faced federal charges saw the former president’s support drop slightly, although he remained the clear Republican poll leader.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the Faith and Freedom conference on Saturday night. Ahead of him on stage Friday were the dead of his main Republican rivals, including DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. The schedule also includes former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and other presidential hopefuls.
The rallying of religious conservatives has prompted some of those candidates to publicize their abortion records more openly than they have done elsewhere on the campaign trail. The issue has divided some Republicans since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, marking a victory for anti-abortion activists that was later seen boosting Democratic voter turnout.
DeSantis, who has rarely trumpeted his state’s six-week abortion ban since he quietly signed it into law earlier this year, said Friday that “it’s the right thing to do.”
Scott, who raised questions about abortion near the start of his presidential campaign, told the crowd that the pro-abortion left had “lost faith in life itself.”
Pence, Trump’s former vice president who is running on a more traditionally conservative platform, urged “every Republican candidate for president” to “support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum standard throughout country.”