Trump’s Grip on the Republican Party Faces 3 Big Tests in May

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.It’s been an article of faith that Donald Trump has a vise-like grip on his Republican Party. Those who defied him found themselves vanquished. Rare was the candidate he opposed who could weather his contempt: Gov. Brian Kemp survived in Georgia, where he tested his supremacy over the MAGA wing of the party in 2022; Sen. Lisa Murkowski defeated a ranked-choice challenge from a fellow Republican and Trump-backed contender that year; Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina prevailed in a Trump-led primary against her then, too.But, by and large, a Trump blessing has been more than sufficient to sideline heretics to the cult of Trumpism. In 2022, as an ousted ex-President, Trump still posted an enviable record: 93% of his candidates made it through the primary and 83% of them won in November that year, according to Ballotpedia. Two years later, those numbers were 96% and 89%.For a decade now, it seemed like the GOP ecosystem was one entirely at his mercy. But May’s primary calendar sets up three big tests of Trump’s influence—each of which carries a