Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is reportedly discussing the possibility of a 2024 presidential campaign with major Republican donors. The decision, reportedly, will ultimately depend on the 2022 midterm elections and not former President Donald Trump.
Tom Cotton, the junior senator from Arkansas, possibly running against Donald Trump? It’s a surprise I welcome with open arms. This is a major development for the future of the Republican Party, and it is up to Republican voters and donors to push Cotton toward running.
Dan McLaughlin lists a few positive attributes about Cotton in his analysis. “He’s smart, conservative, relatively sober-minded, and has a foot in several different camps across the party,” he writes. “He’s a veteran, a hawk with real foreign-policy credibility, and a law-and-order guy.”
Yet the cons outweigh the pros for McLaughlin. He calls Cotton a “serious guy” that “comes off as fairly dry” when speaking. “He’s more Scott Walker than Trump in terms of personality,” McLaughlin writes. “He’d be a safe choice, but not an exciting one.” His verdict: “Cotton could easily get in the way of a better option.”
“Cotton’s best path to the nomination would look like the John Kerry route: draw a weak field in a year when foreign policy is predominant, a lot of potential heavyweights pass on a run, and the party is hungry for a credible candidate,” he writes. “That probably does not describe the Republican field in 2024.”
I’ll agree that Cotton needs to inflect his voice more when speaking to crowds, but his charisma (or lack thereof) has not stopped Republican donors, activists, and voters from quietly raising support for the senator. McLaughlin tries to speculate about the 2024 field but only hits the mark on one of the factors. There will be big hitters trying to run, but that’s where the accuracy ends.
So, what is the case for Cotton? He is a bridge between the establishment clawing to regain control of the Republican Party and the populists that wish to tear down legacy conservative institutions in order to rebuild it. “When Cotton rose to speak, he argued that he had developed appeal to the populist and establishment wings of the party, which he contended would serve him well in a primary,” Alex Isenstadt wrote.
Foreign policy will be an important part of the 2024 field if a candidate strikes the right chord. President Joe Biden is failing to tackle the challenge of China and Republicans from varying ideological tribes are concerned. However, the Trump-era base that Josh Hawley and other populist-right politicians are appealing to is tired of separating foreign policy from domestic policy. Offshoring jobs to China is the gripe of many Republicans, and they’re tired of hearing about solutions that involve trade deals and tax cuts. The base wants something coherent, and they want it now.
Cotton does not ignore the concerns of ordinary people when discussing foreign policy. In fact, support for the common good is foundational to Cotton’s anti-China playbook. He introduced a bill to raise the minimum wage gradually to $10, indexing the future wage to inflation, and mandating E-Verify to ensure compliance with immigration laws. Alongside Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cotton proposed legislation that would prevent Big Tech from “making killer acquisitions that harm competition and eliminate consumer choice.” The logic is simple: If the federal government is unwilling or unable to improve the lives of America’s citizens directly, then China has already won.
Law and order is another crucial issue for Cotton, and his stance is rightfully uncompromising. Cotton’s well-known “Send In The Troops” op-ed for the New York Times called for the Trump administration to utilize the Insurrection Act against rioters during the summer of 2020. Democrats decried Cotton’s essay, and the newspaper added a disclaimer at the beginning that says the piece “should not have been published.”
Yet when the events of Jan. 6 occurred, Cotton issued a press release reiterating his stance against political violence. “The principle remains the same: no quarter for insurrectionists,” he declared. This stance was suddenly commended by the Left, but only Cotton emerged with his credibility intact.
The party desperately needs a fresh face that can appeal to all wings of the GOP’s ideological tribes. Former President Donald Trump will be 78 in November 2024, making a Biden v. Trump rematch a battle between retirees in denial. Cotton is young and hits the ideological bullseye. Our communities cannot wait for Trump to stop making politics about himself. Cotton needs to run because when it comes to the survival of our republic and its place in the world, no effort should be dismissed as futile.
James Sweet is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
