The 2024 nomination of Donald Trump was both predictable and wildly unusual. Parties almost never nominate someone who has previously lost the presidency - let alone a candidate who helped organize a riot and faced dozens of criminal indictments. Why, then, did Republicans nominate Trump for a third time? In this fascinating follow-up to Learning from Loss, leading scholar and political analyst Seth Masket conducted surveys and interviews with local Republican leaders across the country between 2021 and 2024. He finds that most were deeply wary of nominating Trump again but had lost any control they once had over their party to a passionate core of voters. The Elephants in the Room captures a political party in the act of making a fateful decision; attempts to understand what has happened within the Republican Party in recent years by focusing on the people most critical to it; and looks at how the party has changed, what we should be learning from it, and how the US political system has changed as result.
| ISBN: | 9781009601139 |
| Publication date: | 18th June 2026 |
| Author: | Seth E Masket |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 216 pages |
| Genres: |
Elections and referenda / suffrage Central / national / federal government policies Political leaders and leadership Political structures: democracy Right-of-centre democratic ideologies Nationalism Political parties and party platforms |
The 2024 nomination of Donald Trump was both predictable and wildly unusual. Parties almost never nominate someone who has previously lost the presidency - let alone a candidate who helped organize a riot and faced dozens of criminal indictments. Why, then, did Republicans nominate Trump for a third time? In this fascinating follow-up to Learning from Loss, leading scholar and political analyst Seth Masket conducted surveys and interviews with local Republican leaders across the country between 2021 and 2024. He finds that most were deeply wary of nominating Trump again but had lost any control they once had over their party to a passionate core of voters. The Elephants in the Room captures a political party in the act of making a fateful decision; attempts to understand what has happened within the Republican Party in recent years by focusing on the people most critical to it; and looks at how the party has changed, what we should be learning from it, and how the US political system has changed as result.
The Elephants in the Room features in the following genres: Elections and referenda / suffrage, Central / national / federal government policies, Political leaders and leadership, Political structures: democracy, Right-of-centre democratic ideologies, Nationalism, Political parties and party platforms
The Elephants in the Room is available in Hardback
The Elephants in the Room was written by Seth E Masket and published by Cambridge University Press
The Elephants in the Room has 216 pages
£22.50