http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-republican-party-supporters-223341Republicans' new reality: Forever Trump
Win or lose in November, his supporters have already won key positions within the party that ensure their influence will extend well past 2016.
By Kyle Cheney
05/19/16 05:26 AM EDT
Donald Trump’s Republican doubters like to think of him as an aberration, a one-time dalliance with a candidate who, once he’s defeated this fall, will be swept off the stage, leaving the GOP back in their rightful hands.
They’re already wrong: Even if Trump never sets foot in the White House, his stamp on the Republican Party will linger long past 2016.
Trump’s primary run spurred a string of like-minded allies to ride his coattails into positions of power within the Republican party, including seats on the Republican National Committee. With or without Trump, they — coupled with a host of conservative rabble-rousers swept in with the help of Ted Cruz — already marshal enough power within the party to change its course, whether the GOP establishment likes it or not.
Adding staying power to the 2016 rebellion is the fact that many of the incoming RNC members have won 4-year terms, virtually guaranteeing they’ll exert significant influence over the Republican Party through the 2020 presidential election and possibly long after.
“The one thing that I’ve seen across the country are change agents getting involved,” said Maryland’s David Bossie, the Trump ally and Citizens United CEO who ousted a 12-year member of the committee Saturday. “Whether they are 100 percent with me or not, I appreciate people who will stand up and be counted. That’s really I think what Mr. Trump’s done is given voice to a whole bunch of people who are going to be heard.”
In other words, when Republican elites lost control of their party during the 2016 primary, they lost it to a movement that has no intention of giving it back.
Along with Bossie, the next RNC roster will feature pro-Trump firebrand Lori Klein Corbin of Arizona and anti-establishment Cruz zealot Cynthia Dunbar of Virginia. They’ll join the potentially dozens of new RNC members that will take their seats in July after the national convention. Many current members are leaving because of term limits set by state parties. At least two were ousted in competitive races, with other contests still to come over the next three weeks.
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