In the worlds of medicine and psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response. It occurs when kidnapped hostages or abuse victims bond with their captors or abusers.

In the national Republican Party today, there is widely extant a political variant of the Stockholm Syndrome, highly analogous to it. To be sure, it is not a medical or psychological condition.

Yet it is very comparable to the Stockholm Syndrome in that the Republican Party has been kidnapped by the hostile MAGA authoritarian forces of Donald Trump. And much of the former leadership of the national GOP has now bonded with their captors: the Trumpist autocrats.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is no longer a viable alternative to Trump among non-MAGA Republicans. DeSantis now defends the Florida requirement that teachers must instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” With Trump’s continued call for the death penalty for the Central Park Five after their exoneration and the DeSantis position on slavery, the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln is one step closer to becoming the Party of Simon Legree.

With every criminal indictment of Donald Trump, support for him within Republican ranks grows wider and deeper, while his downward trend among Independents makes him more unelectable. Independents do not want to vote for a candidate who has been adjudged by a civil jury in New York, the E. Jean Carroll case, to have committed rape and who is, as former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has noted, a “one man crime wave.” The question troubling both rank-and-file Republicans and the donor class is what can Republicans at any level do to avoid a 2024 meltdown.

The best suggestion was made by Utah Senator and former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He has recommended that donors who are backing someone with a slim chance of winning should seek a commitment from the candidate to drop out and endorse by February 26 the person with the best chance of defeating Mr. Trump.

As donors consider alternatives to Trump, there is increasing focus on Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin. He has been forthright and emphatic in declaring that he will not be a presidential candidate in 2024. He states that his focus is on the Virginia legislative races this November.

Yet speculation on a Youngkin candidacy continues to accelerate, especially in view of his popularity in Virginia recently hitting an all-time high of 57 percent. And three recent actions of key national GOP fundraisers have increased the discussion of a Draft Youngkin movement.

First, billionaire businessman Thomas Peterffy has halted his contributions to the candidacy of Ron DeSantis and has endorsed Youngkin.

Second, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, previously a DeSantis backer, has now expressed his hope for a Youngkin candidacy.

Third, Wilbur Ross, former commerce secretary to Trump, will host top donors and party leaders at his Hamptons mansion Friday for “a chance to listen to Youngkin talk about how he’s going to take over the Virginia legislature,” according to the invitation.

So despite his vow of noncandidacy, Glenn Youngkin is emerging as the lead 2024 GOP presidential nomination dark horse. If Glenn Youngkin does run, he will have available to him the support and services of Camden-born Mark Campbell, a nationally renowned GOP consultant who managed his 2021 upset victory in the Virginia gubernatorial race. Campbell began his career as an acclaimed Republican strategist with historic success in New Jersey.

Mark’s first New Jersey breakthrough was in his role as a lead strategist in the 1991 New Jersey legislative campaign that won for the GOP veto-proof majorities in both the Assembly and Senate, the greatest GOP victory in modern New Jersey political history. A year later, in 1992, he achieved another New Jersey historic milestone as the general consultant for Bret Schundler’s victory in the mayoral race in the Democratic impregnable stronghold of Jersey City.

Given my decades of involvement as an observer and participant in New Jersey political campaigns, I can say unequivocally that Mark Campbell has been by far the most competent Garden State Republican strategist and consultant. His work has always been characterized by unsurpassed effective messaging and supremely creative production.

I spoke with Mark yesterday about Glenn Youngkin. Mark is known for bluntness, positive and negative about political players. He is not known for excessive praise. So I take Mark’s following comment seriously, especially the comparison he made between Youngkin and the late New Jersey Congressman Bob Franks, with whom Mark was very close:

Glenn Youngkin loves people and is the most decent, hardworking man I have ever met in politics. Like Bob Franks, a totally people-oriented person, Glenn is a master at both policy and process.

Mark is certain that Youngkin will not seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. He leaves the impression, however, that he would always be most supportive of any future Youngkin campaign, regardless of the office.

The odds remain overwhelming that Trump will win the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination and that the GOP will suffer a meltdown in the national election. If the GOP sustains an unanticipated massive breakout of rationality and opts for Youngkin as its presidential candidate, there is no doubt that the services of Mark Campbell, Jersey born and bred, will be available to him. And Mark Campbell can play the same role for Glenn Youngkin as the supreme architect of effective strategy and messaging that Karl Rove played for George W. Bush.

Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.