NEW YORK (AP) — As he considers one other White Home run, polls present former President Donald Trump is the most well-liked determine within the Republican Occasion. However it wasn’t all the time that approach.

Competing at one level towards a dozen rivals for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, Trump received solely a few third of the vote in key early states. He even misplaced the Iowa caucuses, which kick off the nomination course of.

However he was in a position to prevail nonetheless as a result of these within the social gathering who opposed his model of divisive politics had been by no means in a position to coalesce round a single rival to confront him. And with Trump mulling one other White Home bid as quickly as this summer time, the identical dynamic might repeat.

With a rising listing of candidates gearing up for their very own presidential runs, even a Trump diminished by two impeachments and mounting authorized vulnerabilities might maintain a commanding place in a fractured, multi-candidate GOP main.

“I concern it might find yourself the identical approach as 2016, which mainly was everybody thought everybody else ought to get out,” mentioned Republican strategist Mike DuHaime, who suggested former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s marketing campaign that yr. “I feel each main candidate realized that she or he would have a greater shot towards Trump one-on-one. However after all every particular person thought she or he ought to be the one to get that shot and no person obtained out of the way in which. … After which it was too late.”

The nervousness is mounting as a rising listing of potential rivals take more and more brazen steps, delivering high-profile speeches, working advertisements, courting donors and making repeat visits to early voting states.

That group now consists of upward of a dozen could-be-candidates, together with Trump’s former Vice President, Mike Pence, his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and Sens. Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Rick Scot, and Tim Scott, all of whom might run on the previous president’s insurance policies. Within the anti-Trump lane, figures like Rep. Liz Cheney and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan are elevating their profiles.

In the meantime, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is more and more seen as Trump’s inheritor obvious, even by the previous president’s most loyal supporters, and seen by Trump allies as his most formidable potential challenger.

Whereas some, like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, have mentioned they won’t problem Trump if he does go ahead with a run, others, like Christie, appear to be gunning for the battle, even when they appear to be longshot contenders.

“I’m positively giving it severe thought. I’m not gonna make any determination most likely till the tip of the yr,” Christie mentioned in a latest interview.

The previous governor and 2016 candidate has urged the social gathering to maneuver on from Trump and his ongoing obsession with the 2020 election.

“For me, it’s in regards to the social gathering needing to go in in a brand new path from a character perspective, and to proceed to have somebody who can deliver sturdy management, powerful management, that the nation wants, however doesn’t have the entire different drama that goes together with it,” he mentioned. “I’m listening to the identical issues from donors that I’m listening to from voters — that they’re very involved that we are able to’t put ourselves ready to have 2024 be about something however the good of the nation.”

Pompeo, who has had a busy journey schedule and plans to return to Iowa this summer time, mentioned in a latest interview that he has been spending time studying and listening to former President Ronald Reagan’s speeches as he prepares for a doable run.

“We’re on the point of keep within the battle,” he mentioned in an interview final month as he courted evangelical Christians at a gathering in Nashville, Tennessee.

He mentioned he and his spouse would sit down after the midterm elections and “suppose our approach via it, pray our approach via it, and resolve the place’s finest to serve. It could possibly be presenting ourselves for elected workplace once more. We might select a distinct path. However we’re not gonna stroll away from these items that I’ve been engaged on for 30 years now. They matter an excessive amount of.”

Within the meantime, he sketched out a doable lane in a lot the identical mildew as Trump.

“He was a disruptor that was most important in 2016, there’s little question about that,” Pompeo mentioned. And now the duty is to take these set of understandings, these set of rules, and defend them and construct upon them. And it’s gonna take lots of work to try this, leaders of actual fortitude and character to try this.”

The more and more open speak comes as Trump faces a cascade of escalating authorized troubles.

The congressional committee investigating the lethal Jan. 6 rebel has revealed more and more damaging details about Trump’s ultimate weeks in workplace, whereas the Division of Justice has launched its personal sprawling probe. In Georgia, the prosecutor investigating Trump’s doubtlessly unlawful meddling within the state’s 2020 election final week ramped up her efforts by subpoenaing members of Trump’s inside circle. And in New York, Trump, his namesake son and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to reply questions beneath oath starting subsequent week within the New York lawyer common’s civil investigation into his enterprise practices.

Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina congressman who served as Trump’s appearing White Home chief of employees, mentioned the strikes urged potential candidates “would possibly see a gap the place none existed two months in the past.”

“Trump fatigue is likely to be an actual factor,” he mentioned, with voters asking themselves whether or not, in the event that they vote for an additional candidate, they “can get the identical insurance policies with out all the luggage.”

On the identical time, Trump has seen a few of his endorsed main candidates falter. Those that have received, together with Ohio GOP Senate nominee JD Vance and Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Mehmet Oz, have accomplished so with about 30% of the vote, which means that two-thirds of social gathering voters went towards Trump’s picks.

“I don’t suppose anyone underestimates Trump. There’s a motive he’s probably the most sought-after endorsement in each single Republican main,” mentioned GOP strategist Alex Conant. “That mentioned, I feel there’s a recognition that lots of Republican voters wish to the longer term and prepared for what’s subsequent.”

To what extent stays an open query. Throughout a visit to Iowa this week, Arkansas Sen. Cotton declined to weigh in on Trump’s standing. However he mentioned he hoped to be “an efficient nationwide chief, not just for my social gathering however for the American folks in my position within the Senate and some other future position I’d serve.”

Nonetheless, he argued, candidates ought to embrace Trump’s legacy.

“I do know that Donald Trump could be very common amongst our voters who recognize the successes he delivered for 4 years in a really hostile surroundings. They don’t need Republicans who’re working towards that legacy, as a result of they view that legacy as an excellent success,” he mentioned Thursday in Cambridge, Iowa.

In the meantime, Trump continues to maneuver ahead along with his personal occasions.

On Friday night time, he campaigned in Las Vegas alongside Adam Laxalt, his decide for Nevada Senate. And on Saturday night time, he’ll maintain a rally in Anchorage, Alaska, to marketing campaign with Republican Kelly Tshibaka, whom he has endorsed in her race towards U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and others, together with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who’s now working for Congress.

Conant mentioned it made sense for candidates to proceed testing the waters for now.

“Numerous potential candidates are realizing that 2024 could also be their final finest likelihood, no matter what Trump does,” he mentioned. “There’s a really weak Democrat within the White Home, Republicans appear more likely to win, and if it’s not Trump, they’re mainly sidelined for the subsequent 10 years.”

Nonetheless, Conant, who served as communications director to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential bid, famous the similarities.

“It appears prefer it’s more and more clear there’s going to be lots of people working for president. And whereas I feel there’s an urge for food for one thing completely different, the choice to Trump must coalesce round one candidate,” he mentioned. “That by no means occurred in 2016. And it may not occur in 2024.”

__ Related Press writers Steve Peoples in New York and Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.