(PresidentialWire.com)- On Monday, May 24, former Speaker Paul Ryan headlined a fundraiser for NeverTrump Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger.
The virtual fundraiser, with ticket prices ranging from $250 to $11,600 per person, was hosted by Kinzinger’s Country First committee along with his Future First Leadership PAC.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Paul Ryan is willing to help raise campaign money for Kinzinger.
Like Kinzinger, Ryan has been harshly critical of President Trump – both during the 2016 election and into the first two years of Trump’s Presidency when Ryan was serving as Speaker of the House.
More recently, Ryan, like Kinzinger, has been criticizing Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election calling them “anti-democratic” and “anti-conservative.”
Back in March, Paul Ryan held a virtual fundraiser for fellow anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney.
It is not unusual for the Establishment to protect its own. But it may not be a successful course of action.
While bringing Paul Ryan off the bench to fundraise for the embattled anti-Trump Republicans may appeal to big-money establishment Republican donors, it is unlikely his presence will improve their standing among the Republican base.
In the end, voters decide.
While many believe this reveals a growing intra-party struggle within the Republican Party, in truth, the actual divide is between the Republican base and the DC Establishment. And that struggle has been going on for years.
Paul Ryan, like John Boehner before him, is viewed as the kind of establishment politician Republican voters rejected when they nominated Donald Trump in 2016.
Speaking of John Boehner. For his part, he too is working hard to fundraise for anti-Trump establishment wing of the party.
In March, Boehner held a fundraising event for Ohio Republican Anthony Gonzalez. Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump in January, already has a primary challenger, former Trump White House aide Max Miller.
At stake here is which direction the Republican Party will go post-Trump. Paul Ryan and John Boehner hope to restore the Party to its pre-Trump years. Lost in this mission is the understanding that it was the pre-Trump Republican Party that spawned the very movement that elected Donald Trump.
It is unlikely Republican voters will surrender what they’ve gained in bringing the party more in line with the base simply because Donald Trump is no longer in office.
