5 biggest GOP losers since Trump’s election

Hillary Clinton and most other Democrats were the big losers in 2016, but there were even Republicans who lost despite Donald Trump’s victory. Now that the Trump Cabinet is almost complete, we have a clear idea who the big GOP losers are.

Here are the five biggest GOP losers, in no particular order.

Mitt Romney

2016 was not kind to the 2012 GOP nominee for president. Romney put himself out there twice and was rejected both times. He toyed with a run for the GOP nomination when Trump was faltering. But his trial balloon was shot down quickly by Republican activists.

{mosads}The former governor of Massachusetts then hoped to be Trump’s secretary of State, had a dinner interview with the president-elect and was compelled to eat crow and take back the nasty comments he had made about Trump in the fall. After kissing Trump’s ring, Romney seemed to be high on the president-elect’s list of candidates for the job.

But active opposition from Trump supporters like campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) killed Romney’s candidacy.

Close but no cigar.

Rudy Giuliani

Trump’s staunchest supporter in 2016, Giuliani finished out of the money in the Trump Cabinet sweepstakes. Secretary of State might have been too heavy a lift for the former mayor of New York City. But Giuliani didn’t even get Homeland Security, which would have been a good fit for the man who ran Gotham in the aftermath of 9/11.

Chris Christie

How far the mighty have fallen. Years ago, the governor of New Jersey was once the front-runner to get the Republican presidential nomination and reportedly was Trump’s preference to be his running mate.

But the governor came away empty except for a few subpoenas coming from Bridge-gate scandal. Even getting to be chair of the Republican National Committee seems a bridge too far.

John Kasich

The governor of Ohio won just one state — his own — in the GOP presidential primary campaign. Despite Kasich’s active opposition during the fall campaign, Trump won Ohio handily. Kasich would have loved to see Donald Trump go down in November so he could run against a President Hillary Clinton in 2020.

If Kasich still wants to be president, he needs to wait under 2024 or run against the incumbent president of his own party in 2020.

Paul Ryan

He’s still Speaker of the House, so why is he a loser? Ryan wants to be president someday, but he failed to lead during the presidential campaign.

The Speaker alienated Trump by calling him out for racism and misogamy. Ryan alienated everybody else by continuing to support Trump anyway.

Ryan even canceled an appearance in his home state with the GOP nominee; Trump won Wisconsin anyway.

House Republicans will need someone stronger to guide them through the Medicare and ObamaCare minefields.

Down the line, there will be more Republican losers. The most notable casualty will come from the White House. Former RNC Chair Reince Priebus will compete for Donald Trump’s ear with White House counselor Steve Bannon.

One of them will emerge from the pack as the alpha adviser; the other one will be on my next losers’ list.

Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster and CEO of Bannon Communications Research. (He is not related in any way to the alt-right leader and Trump adviser Stephen Bannon.) Campaigns and Elections magazine called him a “mover and shaker” in the political consulting industry. He hosts and contributes regularly to the nationally syndicated progressive talk show, “The Leslie Marshall Show.” Bannon is also a political analyst for CLTV, the cable news station of the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV. He is also a senior adviser to, and editor of, the blog at MyTiller.com, the social media network for politics. Contact him at brad@bannoncr.com.

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