Can Donald Trump Win Without the Support of Party Elites?

The Brian Lehrer Show | Jan 27, 2016

In past primaries, candidates like Mitt Romney and John McCain earned the Republican nomination with the support of the party establishment. That's something Donald Trump doesn't have. And at this point, it doesn't seem to matter.

Experts like Nate Silver, the data wizard behind FiveThirtyEight.com, have cited the prominent book, The Party Decides (University of Chicago Press, 2008), as the basis for thinking that party establishments ultimately pick "credible at at least reasonably electable representatives of their partisan traditions."

What does Donald Trump's popularity say about that theory? Marty Cohen, a political science professor at James Madison University and a co-author of The Party Decides, joins us to explain.

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