If Donald Trump decides to make Sen. J.D. Vance his running mate sometime in the next week, he’ll be doing more than just elevating Vance: He’ll be elevating the national conservative movement.
“It would certainly put it more towards the front page and bring it some life,” Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas told NOTUS, adding that he sees national conservatives representing a “quiet majority” of conservatives.
National conservatives are part of a new wave on the right — Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt pointed to recently elected conservative senators as emblematic — united by nationalism, economic populism and the rejection of the separation of church and state. Proponents advocate for the abandonment of small government conservatism to be replaced by institutional power that can take on leftist cultural and economic trends.