Bud Kennedy: Are Texas conservatives dropping Trump after Jan. 6 hearings?

Donald Trump’s voters haven’t moved on. But conservative talk radio has. Republicans should thank Trump for the Supreme Court and move on, KSKY/660 AM host Mark Davis told a mostly unconvinced audience Friday. The party needs a less worry-prone candidate who can win in 2024 and again in 2028, the 28-year morning radio host told listeners the morning after House committee witnesses portrayed Trump as selfishly happy during the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Both Davis and fellow Salem Radio Network host Mike Gallagher depicted Trump as a fighter but no longer a winner. “My email inbox this morning is full of letters from listeners saying, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do it — he’s too much, he’s too polarizing, it’s too awful,’ ” Gallagher said. The conversation came after a hearing that focused on Trump’s “187 minutes” of inaction during the violent attack by patriot-movement activists and militia groups.

It also came after a poll by Virginia-based Echelon Insights found that Trump remains Republicans’ favorite for the 2024 presidential nomination, but also that a growing number of party voters favor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and view Trump as too obsessed with the 2020 outcome. Davis’ listeners on Irving-based KSKY, a Christian conservative talk station, weren’t all buying it. After Davis opened his show with the stop-and-start audio outtakes from Trump’s White House video calling for peace at the Capitol — including Trump refusing to say, “The election is over” — the first caller was “Rick in Sherman.” “I’m a little torn on how I would vote in a primary,” he told Davis. (That’s the first time in six years I’ve heard any of Davis’ conservative callers say they might not vote for Trump.)