With all eyes on the Iowa caucuses and Donald Trump leading the race for the GOP nomination, a startling fact remains: the real estate mogul has yet to receive a single endorsement from a Republican senator or congressman,
The Hill reports.
"I love a lot of the things that Donald Trump is saying," said Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a tea party firebrand who — along with 17 other House Republicans — has put his name behind Sen. Ted Cruz.
"But then you worry since [Trump] is a deal-maker and he knows how to win, is he doing what he needs to do to win now, and then going to turn around and go back to the principles he stood on for nearly all of his life in the general election?" Gohmert told Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"And then evangelicals have nowhere else to go at that point."
Another Cruz-supporter, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, added that anyone who endorses Trump is guilty of "Pay for Play" politics.
The reasons for backing Trump are simple, the Iowa senator noted. "One of them is money…" he told Politico.
"It might be fame, it might be the mystique of the Trump machine, it might be people are afraid of retribution and it might be people that are looking for opportunities down the line. And it might be any combination of those things and others that I haven't said."
While many conservative radio hosts, such as Glenn Beck, are blasting Trump and calling him a "dangerous man" and a "bully," The Hill notes that the closest Trump has gotten to a congressional endorsement are from those running from Cruz.
Former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., told the New York Times he'd back Trump if Cruz were the only other choice. "Nobody likes him," Dole said of Cruz. The Kansas senator added that Trump could "probably work with Congress, because . . . he's got the right personality and he's kind of a deal-maker."
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., told The Washington Post that Trump could become a "big asset" to the party and has the capacity to "shatter traditional" ways of doing business in Congress.
And, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who also prefers Trump to Cruz, said that he has "come around a little bit" to the idea of Trump as president.
Although some prefer Trump over Cruz, the anxiety truly builds with both candidates as Republicans fear that either man could drag down the party in congress and Democrats could take back the House and the Senate.
The Hill notes that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a memo explaining how they will "target 13 vulnerable incumbent Republican congressmen by linking them to Trump's extreme policies."
"Regardless of the ultimate Republican nominee, Trump and Cruz have hijacked the Republican narrative and driven the conversation to a place that is bad news for House Republicans in a presidential year," a DCCC spokeswoman recently told reporters.
The Democrats need to win 30 House seats to retake the majority. And while this typically would be unlikely, it is more than possible with polarizing figures such as Trump or Cruz, The Hill reports.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.