Donald Trump collected two more newspaper endorsements on Sunday – nice pickups for a candidate feeling momentum near the finish line but also a reminder of just how rare it was for the Republican presidential nominee to earn a publication’s support in this election.
The Florida Times-Union and Bowling Green (Ky.) Daily News joined a coterie of Trump-backing papers that includes the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson, and small dailies such as the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press, Santa Barbara News-Press, Waxahachie (Tex.) Daily Light, Times-Gazette of Hillsboro, Ohio, and Antelope Valley Press of Palmdale, Calif.
Overall, the 2016 endorsement season was characterized by striking departures from tradition, as conservative editorial boards across the country overwhelmingly rejected the Republican Party’s standard-bearer.
The San Diego Union-Tribune endorsed Hillary Clinton, marking the first time the paper has supported a Democrat for president since 1868. The Arizona Republic also backed Clinton, endorsing a Democrat for the first time in its 126-year history.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, noting it “has supported Republicans for president for almost a century,” endorsed Clinton, as did the Dallas Morning News, even though it “has not recommended a Democrat for the nation’s highest office since before World War II.”
The State of Columbia, South Carolina, bestowed on Clinton its first endorsement of a Democrat in 40 years, and the Houston Chronicle’s endorsement of Clinton was just its second for a Democrat in 13 election cycles.
Other right-leaning publications that could not bring themselves to endorse Clinton threw their support by Libertarian Gary Johnson, instead. The Chicago Tribune, Detroit News, Union Leader of Manchester, N.H., Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal and Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch all backed the former governor of New Mexico.
The Florida Times-Union wrote that endorsing Trump was “anything but a comfortable call” but concluded that he is the best option in a field of flawed candidates:
“America needs a major shake-up. There is only one presidential candidate with the will and ability to do it.
“Donald Trump, despite all of his faults, is best suited to blow up the inbred corruption of the Washington-New York elites.”
The Bowling Green Daily News wrote that “it would be tempting for this newspaper to sit out this election cycle, but our conscience will not allow this because of the threat to our individual liberties under the Bill of Rights and to the rule of law a Hillary Clinton presidency would pose.
“Trump wears the crass label while Clinton carries the corrupt label. Each candidate has additional liabilities we could enumerate.
“Given what we believe is at risk in this election, including the erosion of our individual liberties by an overreaching government and the rule of law, we believe that crass trumps corrupt by a wide margin.”
The Washington Post
