Will Trump, Closing in on GOP Nomination, Follow Nixon’s Advice and Run to the Center?
The 45th president’s base alone cannot deliver a second term, no matter how passionate his preaching to the choir. The road to victory runs through the press and the people who don’t vote Republican.
As President Trump closes in on a third Republican presidential nomination, advice from the only other man to achieve that feat looms large. To win, President Nixon said, a GOP candidate pivots to the center, something Mr. Trump did in 2016 but has shown little appetite for since.
“Run to the right in the primary election,” Nixon said, “and then run to the center in the general election.” It was a lesson he learned as President Eisenhower’s vice president in 1952, the first Republicans elected to the White House in 24 years.
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