MAGA Round 3: Reaction to former President Trump running in 2024

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — Former President Donald Trump said he's throwing his hat back into the ring of presidential politics, having announced Tuesday night that he's running for President in 2024.

The question was never really if he would run, but when he would run.

"America's comeback starts right now," Trump said.

The former president made that big announcement Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate in front of a large crowd of supporters.

"In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for President of the United States," he said.

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He also said, "This will not be my campaign, this will be our campaign altogether."

David Richards is the Chair of Political Science at the University of Lynchburg.

He said the timing of the announcement could have big effects.

"I think having him run gives the Democrats a tool to use," Richards explained. "It gives them a Boogeyman, as it were. It's probably, from the Republican's point of view -- this is not the perfect timing. From Donald Trump's point of view, obviously, he felt that this was the time."

This announcement came after a worse-than-expected result in the midterm election for both Trump-backed candidates and Republicans as a whole.

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The GOP expected a red wave that would convincingly take back the House and maybe even the Senate.

As of Wednesday evening, officials project the Republicans will clinch the House but will not take the Senate.

Senator Tim Kaine said that he was not surprised by the decision but said Trump's role in what happened on January 6, 2021 will affect this run.

"That should disqualify him in the eyes of every voter in this country from ever getting anywhere near the Oval Office," Kaine said.

For the GOP, the question right now is whether this announcement will have an effect on the Georgia Senate runoff race between Hershel Walker and Raphael Warnock.

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Richards said he believes this shouldn't make much difference because Trump has already endorsed Walker.

"Trump sort of endorsing Walker going forward may not have a tremendously new effect," Richards explained. "It's still going to have that same effect."

Kaine added that he thought this will help the Democrats moving forward.

"No one unifies every Democrat in this country as much as Donald J. Trump," he said. "And no one is as divisive within the Republican party in this country as Donald J. Trump."

Richards said that Trump's key to success this time around will be whether he can unify the party and independents.

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"He always needs to bring along, especially the rest of the Republicans and those independent voters," Richards said. "And if he doesn't do that, then he's gonna have a struggle going forward again."

ABC13 also reached out to several Republican leaders in Virginia for their reaction to the news -- namely Bob Good, Morgan Griffith, Ben Cline, and Governor Glenn Youngkin.

We either didn't hear back from their offices or they were unavailable to interview with us on Wednesday.