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Wharton at WNHH.
The day after Donald Trump swept Connecticut’s Republican presidential primary, New Haven’s new GOP chief vowed not to vote for him in November if he emerges, as now seems increasingly likely, as the party’s candidate.
“Never Trump,” the GOP chair, Southern Connecticut State University political science professor Jonathan Wharton, declared during a primary post-mortem interview Wednesday on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Trump won 58 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s statewide primary, part of a five-state sweep that positioned him ever closer to a first-ballot nomination at this summer’s national party convention.
Wharton won’t be there cheering him on.
Why?
“He lacks polish. I find him in many ways uncouth. I’m concerned in terms of how he represent himself and the party. His stances, we’re not 100 percent certain of,” Wharton said.
Trump has signaled an intention to present a more professional, consistent, controlled campaign under the influence of new top adviser Paul Manafort. Wharton said that doesn’t change his mind. “How do we know if this is for certain” given that Trump continually shifts his views? he asked.
Wharton said he also will not vote for runner-up Republican candidate Ted Cruz, a Texas U.S. senator. “He says that he is a bridge-builder, when I find him to be more or less a bridge-burner,” Wharton said, Cruz, for example, led a federal government shutdown in an effort to defund Obamacare, has called for “carpet-bombing” ISIS. Wharton is part of a group of Republicans seeking to broaden the party’s appeal, as described in this previous interview.
Though he can’t envision supporting the current potential candidates in his own party, Wharton said he will not vote for likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton either. Rather, “I’m interested in some third-party candidates” such as Libertarian Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor. “I know some” of his fellow Republicans “feel the same way,” he said.
Click on or download the above audio to hear the full interview with Wharton, which also covered the controversy over a proposed state bill to reexamine one of Yale’s tax exemptions.
“Urban Talk Radio” host Shafiq Abdussabur unpacks the election on his latest episode too, talking to community activist Barbara Fair and WNHH Station Manager Lucy Gellman about Hillary Clinton’s New Haven win and the November 2016 election. To listen, click on or download the audio above, or subscribe to WNHH’s new “Elm City Lowdown” podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes.
We could have used his vote for Bernie.