Hennebach presents:Still Trump’s Party?: Local Republican Leaders and the Rise of Conservative Populism with Dr. Seth Masket

How did local Republican party leaders make up their minds about the 2024 presidential nomination? Masket conducted a survey of Republican county party chairs across the United States conducted between February 2023 and February 2024. Survey results show that support for Donald Trump is consistent with the principles of a longstanding conservative populist tradition that dates back decades; this wasn’t a movement he created, but rather one that took over the party before he became interested in running for office. Additionally, the survey offers some insights into beliefs about electability and the impact of the criminal indictments filed against Trump throughout 2023.

Dr. Seth Masket is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, as well as Visiting Senior Scholar with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University, 2024-25. Masket studies party organization and nominations, legislative polarization, and campaigns and elections. He is the author, most recently, of Learning From Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020 (Cambridge University Press). He regularly writes for Politico, MS-NBC, and the Los Angeles Times, and he maintains a Substack newsletter called “Tusk” covering his research on modern US political parties.