Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has now secured the endorsement of every member of the House GOP leadership team.
On Wednesday, Representative Tom Emmer, the majority whip in the house, announced he’d endorse Trump in the 2024 presidential election. In doing so, he became the fifth and final member of GOP leadership to endorse the former president.
Representative Steve Scalise, the majority leader in the House, issued his endorsement of Trump one day earlier. House Speaker Mike Johnson; Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee; and Representative Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House GOP Conference, had all previously endorsed Trump.
In a statement, Emmer said he thinks Trump is best suited to take down President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
He said in the statement, which was posted to the social media platform X:
“Democrats have made clear they will use every tool in their arsenal to try and keep Joe Biden and his failed policies in power. We cannot let them. It’s time for Republicans to unite behind our party’s clear frontrunner, which is why I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President.”
Emmer’s endorsement is a big one for Trump, even if it’s really only symbolical. Emmer and Trump have had some run-ins in the past, and Emmer had said not too long ago that he might not even endorse any candidate in the GOP primary.
Now that he has changed his mind, it’s a powerful show of unity by the House GOP leadership, at a time when many people have called into question the state of the conference.
Emmer tried to replace former Representative Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House back in October, but Trump launched a public campaign against that move. He even called him a “Globalist RINO” and that anyone who voted for him would be making “a tragic mistake.”
In addition, Emmer is the only member of the House GOP leadership team who didn’t object to the Electoral College’s certification in January 2021.
It’s possible that Emmer saw all the other members of GOP leadership rally behind Trump – and realized that Trump is the overwhelming favorite to capture the party’s nomination – and decided to get in line.
In addition to having every member of the House GOP leadership endorse him, Trump has also received endorsements from significant politicians across the country.
There are 90 Republicans in the House, 18 Republicans in the Senate and seven Republican governors who have endorsed him thus far.
He even received an endorsement from former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, who said he’s now an “active Trump support(er)” ever since the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August of 2022.
National polls show that Trump is far ahead of all the other GOP presidential candidates as the Iowa caucuses loom in less than two weeks.
The former president even finds himself slightly ahead of the current president in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in the general election.
