Regarding your points, Leah and Jacob, I think it’s going to be largely location-dependent. The professional class in Republican politics knows the places where it needs to be more thoughtful about who it nominates. Virginia is obviously one of those places. I think they have levers to play with outside of totally skipping a primary to get non-fringe candidates elected, but it’s still an open question. I also think that Trump sometimes ends up endorsing more mainstream candidates in order to rack up wins for his endorsees. He may be more inclined to do that in competitive territory. In very red parts of the country, all bets are off.
