WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump was expected to announce another run for the White House Tuesday, prompting many to wonder how the GOP in Texas, a state that has a history of enthusiastically supporting the New York mogul, will respond after last week’s midterms.
In his visits to the Lone Star State, from pre-2016 to his most recent rally in South Texas last month, Trump has collected sizable amounts of campaign cash and received warm welcomes from Texas Republicans.
Here’s a timeline on Trump’s ascent to the top of the Republican Party, and the role Texas played in his rise:
June 2015: Trump launches campaign
At Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City, the real estate tycoon and “The Apprentice” reality TV star announced his campaign for 2016.
“Sadly the American dream is dead,” Trump said at the end of his speech, CNN reported. “But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”
June 2016: Cruz calls Trump a ‘sniveling coward’
Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the leading Republican presidential hopefuls at the time, traded barbs on the national stage over their wives, with Cruz calling Trump “a sniveling coward” after Trump insulted Cruz’s wife Heidi.
In September, just three months later, Cruz would back down and endorse Trump, the man he’d labeled “a pathological liar” and who called him “Lyin’ Ted” throughout the primaries.
November 2016: In historic upset, Trump wins 2016 presidential election
Trump shocked the nation — and the world — with his win in 2016.
“Ours was not a campaign, but rather an incredible and great movement,” Trump told happy supporters at his early-morning election party. “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”
October 2017: Trump raises $4 million in Dallas
During a visit that started with a briefing on Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts from Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Trump raised $4 million from 200 donors at back-to-back events at the Belo Mansion — even amid taunts of “Go home, Cheeto!” from protestors.
October 2018: Trump says he’s a ‘nationalist’
At a rally for Ted Cruz’s Senate campaign in Houston, Trump proclaimed himself a proud “nationalist,” jarring critics and scholars. Cruz declined to embrace the label, but Sen. John Cornyn didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
“I would call myself an American first and foremost. If that makes me a nationalist, then so be it,” Cornyn said.
The rally also appeared to have a negative effect on Cruz’s campaign: within hours, Cruz’s support began to crumble, from roughly 12 percentage points — even better than the most optimistic public polls — to 7, and in short order, to 5. Cruz would pull off only a 2.6-percentage point margin victory over former El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke in November.
December 2019: Trump impeached for the first time
In 2019, Trump became only the third U.S. president to get impeached after a Democratic majority in the House voted to formally accuse him of abusing his office in a scheme to coerce Ukraine to tarnish a political rival, then stonewalling Congress by withholding documents and barring testimony from top aides.
November 2020: Trump loses
President Joe Biden secured and surpassed the 270 electoral votes he needed to win the 2020 presidential election. Trump has repeatedly insisted the election was illegitimate since it…
Read More: Looking back at Donald Trump’s ascent to the top of the Republican Party