Seven Republican presidential candidates on Wednesday will take the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute in Simi Valley, California.
A growing legal headache for early frontrunner Donald Trump could pave the way for a “dark horse” Republican presidential candidate to win the backing of the party in the race for the White House.
That’s the view of one former U.S. ambassador ahead of the Republican Party’s second televised presidential debate on Wednesday evening.
Seven candidates will take the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute in Simi Valley, California, seeking to close the gap on Trump — who holds a seemingly unshakeable lead over the rest of the field.
The former president, who skipped the first Republican Party presidential debate in Wisconsin last month, boasts a lead of more than 40 points over his nearest competition, according to a recent national NBC News poll.
Trump has said he doesn’t plan to take part in the second Republican debate on Wednesday evening and will instead deliver a speech to autoworkers in Detroit.
“I think we are just seeing the beginning Donald Trump’s legal issues starting to pile up on him and I think they are going to start to take its toll,” Lew Lukens, former U.S. ambassador and senior partner at Signum Global Advisors, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.
Lukens said there are plenty of Republican Party voters open to alternatives to Trump but they hadn’t found one yet, with many seemingly reluctant to get behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — an early rival to Trump.
“I still think there is a possibility of a dark horse candidate, somebody like Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, who could jump into the race, attract donors, coalesce the non-Trump voters and come out as the candidate,” Lukens said.
Youngkin, who spoke in May about ushering in “a new era of American values” in a presidential campaign-like video, has said he is not running for the White House next year, having previously declined to rule out the possibility of a campaign.
