"I'm With Him": Trump Secures Another GOP Senate Endorsement For 2024 Comeback Bid

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former President Donald Trump has secured another endorsement for his 2024 bid for the White House, with Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) making his long-standing quiet backing for the former president official and full-throated.

"President Trump doesn't need to worry. I'm with him. He's asked me several times to support him. I said yes," Mr. Hawley told Politico in an interview on Dec. 12.

Earlier, Mr. Hawley said he thinks President Trump would surely win the Republican nomination but stopped short of officially declaring his endorsement. That has now changed, with Mr. Hawley's announcement making him the 18th Republican senator to endorse the former president's comeback bid for the White House.

"I've been saying for a year that I think he's going to be the nominee," Mr. Hawley said. "I support him. I'm going to vote for him."

The Missouri Republican added: "You can put me down as support, endorsed, stand with."

In Democrats' Crosshairs

The Missouri Republican's declaration of endorsement comes after President Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend to warn Mr. Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that Democrats are trying to figure out how to oust the two from their respective Senate seats and extend their razor-thin majority in the upper chamber.

"So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas," President Trump wrote. "Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!"

The 2024 election cycle is vital to the Democrat Party as it looks to hold on to—or broaden—its slim Senate majority. This summer, Sarah Guggenheimer, a spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority political action committee (PAC), told Politico that Mr. Cruz and Mr. Hawley were major targets that Democrats want to oust.

At the time, Mr. Hawley told the outlet that he expects Democrat-aligned donors to spend $100 million to try and flip his Senate seat blue, while Mr. Cruz said that he's taking the race "intensely seriously."

While Mr. Hawley has endorsed President Trump, Mr. Cruz has not officially declared which candidate he is backing. In the 2016 primary, Mr. Cruz was then-candidate Trump's chief rival for the nomination but ultimately endorsed him and campaigned on his behalf.

Mr. Cruz has, on several occasions, broken with President Trump on endorsements, supporting opponents of Trump-backed candidates ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections.

Mr. Hawley's endorsement brings the number of senators officially backing President Trump's election bid to 18 (out of 49 Republican senators), while just four senators have endorsed other candidates.  The former president has also secured the official backing of nearly 90 House members, with no other candidate coming close in congressional endorsements.

President Trump is dominating the field for the Republican nomination, with the latest RealClearPolitics polling average showing him with 60.3 percent support, which is over 47 points ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (12.6 percent) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (12.1 percent).

President Trump's commanding lead in the primary polls is why he declined to participate in any of the GOP presidential debates.

Meanwhile, the former president has called on the GOP to take urgent action after a poll revealed that one-in-five mail-in voters admitted to committing at least one type of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Over 43 percent of 2020 votes were cast by mail, which is the highest percentage in U.S. history.

'Biggest Story of The Year'

A survey carried out by Heartland/Rasmussen and published on Dec. 12 has bolstered President Trump's longstanding claim that he was cheated out of a victory in the 2020 presidential election.

The survey shows that 17 percent of mail-in voters admitted to voting in a state where they are no longer permanent residents; 21 percent filled out ballots for others; 17 percent signed ballots for family members without consent, and 8 percent reported offers of "pay" or "reward" for their vote.

Further, 10 percent of all respondents to the poll (carried on a representative sample of 1,085 likely voters) said they know a friend, family member, co-worker, or other acquaintance who admitted to casting a mail-in ballot fraudulently.

In response to the concerning findings, President Trump took to Truth Social to demand urgent action.

"This is the biggest story of the year, and Republicans must do something about it," the former president wrote. Further, he suggested that unless something is done quickly to address the problem of voter fraud, the issue will cast a pall over the 2024 election.

"Have to make a move now," President Trump continued. "Get tough, get smart. Our country is being stolen!"

While Democrats and their allies claim that election fraud is little more than a myth, President Trump has said for years that voter fraud is a pervasive problem in U.S. politics —and insists he was robbed of a win in the 2020 election.