‘Groper’ scares off Republican contenders

The Republican Party’s ‘beauty parade’ for its presidential hopefuls has been overshadowed by scandal.

CPAC host and chairman Matt Schlapp. Picture: AAP

Leading Republicans will gather in Washington this week for a conference that usually serves as a beauty parade for the party’s presidential hopefuls.

However, preparations for CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, billed by organisers as the “largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world”, have been overshadowed this year by allegations of sexual assault involving its chairman.

The claims have led to some top figures staying away, despite the primary season beginning in less than a year.

CPAC is usually one of the first events an aspiring White House contender will mark in the diary so close to the primary season. This year Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, the only people to confirm they are standing, are among the keynote speakers. Others such as the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and the former vice-president Mike Pence are not thought to be taking part.

Former President Donald Trump in Ohio last week. Picture: AFP

Neither has given a definitive reason for their absence, but some have linked their decisions to the allegations against Matt Schlapp. He is the influential chairman of the American Conservative Union, the powerful right-wing body that organises CPAC and has close links to Trump.

Schlapp was George W Bush’s political director and is married to Mercedes Schlapp, who was Trump’s director of strategic communications. The couple have five daughters.

Earlier this year, a male employee working on the ultimately unsuccessful Senate campaign of Georgia’s Herschel Walker alleged that Schlapp had “groped” and “fondled” his crotch while he was driving him back from a bar in Atlanta where he had been drinking.

The employee filed a lawsuit against Schlapp and his wife seeking $US9.4m for sexual battery and defamation.

A statement from Schlapp’s lawyer at the time said the complaint was “false” and the “Schlapps and their legal team are assessing counter-lawsuit options”.

Pence has not attended the last two CPAC events, possibly because they have become cheerleading events for Trump. He has made no secret of his presidential ambitions, however, and during past election cycles it would be almost unheard of for a serious Republican challenger not to speak at CPAC.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Picture: AFP

DeSantis is launching a book this week – the surest possible sign that he intends to run – and has two events in Texas on Wednesday and Thursday, when CPAC begins.

A CPAC spokesman told ABC News that neither Pence nor DeSantis had been confirmed as speakers.

As well as Trump and Haley, Mike Pompeo, who served as Trump’s secretary of state and is known to be seriously considering a run at the presidency, will be speaking. Other leading Republicans, including the senators Ted Cruz and Bill Hagerty, have confirmed they will take part.

A number of members of Congress from the right of the party, including Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, will address delegates. Some more moderate Republicans believe the event has lurched to the right and no longer represents the views of all party members.

“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that CPAC is not attracting the big names that it once did,” a Republican official told ABC News.

“There’s a feeling within the Republican Party that CPAC has long abandoned the traditional values that it once stood for. The allegations against Matt Schlapp … exacerbated these issues and are likely to contribute to further decline [of] the organisation.”

The Times