Incumbent presidents do not usually face primary challengers; the party likes to stay in power and primary challenges to a sitting president usually lead to the other party winning. For example, Reagan challenged Ford in 1976 and Carter won. Ted Kennedy challenged Carter in 1980 and Reagan won. Pat Buchannan challenged George H W Bush in 1992 and Clinton won. Challengers never get the nomination and usually sabotage the general election. This is well-known, which means the challengers are spoilers. The three challengers thus far are:
Joe Walsh is a one-term Congressman who was elected to the House in 2010 and lost in 2012 after his district was redrawn. He has no other elective office experience. He has spent most of the years since as a radio talk show host. He admitted to saying 'racist things' on air, which is going to sink him in an instant. He's going nowhere but maybe he can raise some cash and increase his name recognition.
Mark Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina who went 'hiking' but was discovered having an adulterous affair in Argentina. He dodged impeachment but was censured 102-11 by the South Carolina House. He has served in Congress since 2013, managing to make a political comeback though it was a demotion; he had previously served in Congress from 1995 to 2001.
The most formidable of the bunch, Bill Weld is the former governor of Massachusetts (1991 to 97). Despite a huge re-elect margin in 1994, he decided to run for Senate against Kerry in 1996. He lost. Then he accepted a nomination by Bill Clinton to be Ambassador to Mexico. Didn't get it. He resigned his governorship with 18 months left. Boy, I'll bet the voters loved that. Then he moved to New York and ran for governor there! Mercenary politician. In 2016, he was the VP nominee for the Libertarian Party. He's a Republican like Bernie Sanders is a Democrat. He is older than Trump and nixes age as a factor.
All three of these men would have been bottom tier candidates during the 2016 campaign. Trump's overall approval ratings have hovered between 40% and 50% but are phenomenal among Republicans, the very voters who will participate in choosing a nominee. Even if everything goes awry for Trump, primary challengers never win the nomination. This is the longest of long shots.
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