“There really isn’t a path right now that I could see,” Sen. Jeff Flake said of a primary challenge. | Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo 2020 Elections Flake passes on primary challenge to Trump in 2020

Former Sen. Jeff Flake won’t challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, he announced Tuesday, putting to rest months of speculation about what’s next for one of the GOP’s most prominent Trump critics.

“I have always said that I do hope that there is a Republican who challenges the president in the primary,” he said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.” “I still hope that somebody does, but that somebody won't be me. I will not be a candidate.”


The Arizona Republican had fueled murmurs that he would take on the president either with primary challenge or as an independent after declining to run for reelection in 2018 amid fears he would lose to a more Trump-friendly primary challenger.

Flake has became known for his frequent criticisms of the president, In the Senate, he lamented the lack of civility in politics and broke with his party by holding up priorities in order to squeeze out concessions on issues important to him.

But he said Tuesday that the path to beating Trump in a primary was much too difficult.

“There really isn’t a path right now that I could see,” he said, noting that the Republican National Committee and the president’s reelection campaign had taken steps to solidify Trump’s standing atop the party. Last weekend, the RNC passed a resolution declaring “undivided support” and the Trump campaign has begun vetting potential delegates to minimize the possibility of defectors at the party’s nominating convention.

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“The RNC and the president’s campaign are now melded," Flake said Tuesday. "They’re trying to do everything they can to squelch any opposition."

But, he added, “I still hope that some — and some are still talking about it — do run. I think that that’s healthy. And I’m not a fan of this president. But that won’t be me.”

While he was careful to qualify a challenge to the president as an uphill battle, new polling out Tuesday seems to show that at least some Republican voters are receptive to the idea.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that while three quarters of GOP or GOP-leaning voters said they approved of Trump’s job while in office, nearly a third said they wanted to see their party nominate someone else for president in 2020.

Among those rumored to be discussing a primary challenge are Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich.