Trump's win maintains his hold on the GOP. It also kicks off plans for a succession.

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : "We are getting four more years of Trump and then eight years of JD Vance!"
57% : Vance will now sit next to Trump in the White House for the next four years, giving him the dual opportunities to build or mend some relationships with the professional political class as he also leans into an outsider reputation the Trump base loves.
53% : I do believe he has permanently transformed the Republican Party and the overall national political landscape," said a Republican lobbyist and fundraiser who has raised money for Trump.
49% : "Everyone will wait to see how Vance's relationship with Trump goes and how he performs.
43% : Then, she said she would support and vote for Trump, even though her support at public speeches has been tepid at times.
42% : Fitting that bill is Youngkin, whom some "Never Trump" Republicans saw earlier in the 2024 election cycle as a long-shot hope to move the party past Trump.
40% : After he emerged on the scene in 2015, former party heavyweights who did not abide by the new MAGA ethos either were cast off to irrelevance or became the subjects of intense lines of attack from Trump and his supporters.
40% : It is not something Trump himself talked about in the final weeks of the campaign -- but it was the implicit signal sent by his selection of Vance as his running mate just two days after a would-be assassin targeted him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
38% : "Trump won't run again," another said.
36% : He raised record sums of political cash for a governor and pushed policies in Florida that opened up new fronts in the culture wars for conservatives, and he was competing with, and at times beating, Trump in many early-cycle polls.
34% : And because Trump cannot run again, the process to figure out who will lead the party next has already begun, featuring a slate of ambitious and eager Republicans who have been eyeing the opportunity for years -- and a fight that will be shaped by the now two-term president.
34% : As that slow burn plays out, a field to try to succeed Trump after 12 years atop the GOP could include up to a dozen Republican heavyweights, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (who was Trump's final 2024 primary opponent), Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, among most likely a handful of others.
29% : But DeSantis' stock dropped quickly in a primary campaign against Trump, and his campaign and his super PACs spent heavily only for him to be out after Iowa, the GOP's first nominating contest.
27% : A dozen Republican elected officials, fundraisers and consultants said in interviews that at least in the near term, it does not matter whether Trump can run again.
26% : She ran a bruising primary campaign against Trump, saying she would not "kiss the ring" after she became the candidate of anti-Trump Republicans in the primaries.
23% : With Trump now having four more years in the White House, it is extremely unlikely that the party will be looking to make any huge policy or political shifts.
17% : "Trump is the most transformative political figure since Ronald Reagan. ...

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