House Republican backs Trump after debate: ‘We need to rally behind our candidate’

Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) threw his backing behind former President Trump after Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, in which Trump did not participate.

“Division is the last thing we need — we need to really behind our candidate for 2024 and we need to do it fast,” Hern said in a statement shared by the super PAC supporting Trump. Hern reposted a copy to his profile on X.

The Republican lawmaker urged the party to get behind Trump in order to “face the Democrats with a united front,” and took a swipe at Trump’s rivals after the debate.

“After last night’s debate, two things are clear. One, futile exercises like last night’s debate only serve to further divide our Republican Party and, two, no one on that stage will be our Republican nominee,” Hern said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the four qualified candidates who took to last night’s Alabama debate stage. 

Front-runner Trump has passed on the debates so far and called for the RNC to end the events, with many in the party seeing the non-Trump candidates in a race for second place. The former president holds a double-digit lead over his fellow contenders in most polling as the party heads toward the start of voting in January.

Hern was briefly a candidate in the Speaker’s race earlier this year after former Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) ouster.