Following the denouncements from 21 representatives, 6 governors, 14 senators and a former Secretary of State all within his own party, Donald Trump is currently leading the Republican ticket in the presidential election with a lack of party support.
Monday morning following the second presidential debate, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan told Republican Party lawmakers he will no longer defend Trump as president and solely focus on defending the party’s majority.
Although this does not officially take away Ryan’s endorsement of his party’s nominee, the lack of support has spread throughout the country, including Bloomington and Monroe County as a whole.
The compromise for many GOP officials is not publicly endorsing Trump for the position, but rather supporting the party as a whole.
“I endorse everyone on the Republican side because they have earned the spot to represent our party,” William Ellis, Chairman of the Monroe County Republican Party, said.
Ellis said everyone is entitled to their opinion in reference to the many Republican leaders that denounced Trump, yet the support for the individual should not overpower the support of the power.
“Now that we have a nominee it is our duty to get them elected,” Ellis said. “This is not a race between Hillary Clinton and Trump. It’s a race for the Supreme Court for the next 30 years and that needs to be the party’s focus.”
Ellis said Trump was the lesser of two evils between the two candidates, referencing his success in the second debate and Clinton’s lack of responses to her crime allegations.
“I think that with all the important issues that there are, and with where Donald Trump stands on these issues should be the focus,” John Arnold, Monroe County Republican Party treasurer, said.
Arnold identified as an undecided voter, and said he was trying to take all of the information in at once to reach a decision on election day.
Ellis said when the Democrats are posed with a direct question, they tend to ignore it and no one addresses the issue.
It’s extremely telling that Hillary did not address the reasoning behind her mistakes, Ellis said.
Many of the Republican officials denounced their endorsements following the leak of the 2005 tape of Entertainment Tonight in which Trump referenced sexually assaulting women.
“I will say my criticism on how he addressed the problem, especially when addressing it as ‘locker room talk,’” Ellis said. “I don’t think that kind of talk should be allowed in any context.”
Even with this criticism, Ellis said he would endorse any Republican in a sense.
“We need to raise the level of the conversation to the important issues that we are facing including immigration reform and the growing deficit,” Arnold said.
Arnold said he wanted the focus to leave the personal lives of the candidates and solely be on the nation’s issues. His support relied on the stances on these issues.
“For both parties, when you are a party officer, you are supposed to support your ticket,” Ellis said. “When I took office, I knew this was my duty.”
