nope. those people would not have reached the same disaffected group trump did. Trump got people who had given up on politics for decades that everyone wrote off to turn out. trump brought a massive group to the republican party. a group that has been spat on for a while and that the establishment republicans find boorish and uncouth. unfortunately for them they have to maintain that group or they will lose. you needed the rust belt to flip and trump did that. you would have been looking at a Romney repeat year with the rest of those guys. Cruz did not fire up the base back then. he needed to crib off of trumps play book to get where he is on the right. Rubio? nope. the Republican party needed to crib off MAGA to try and retain those votes. unfortunately they are obsessed with trying to half ass it while kicking Trump to the curb. this will lose them their base. when trump was there they voted down ballot and the never trumpers never trumped. if trump wasn't there the never trumpers would have been there for you but you would not have those gains. you want the Romney numbers back? you can get them.
(Citation needed). I've seen this claimed numerous times, but I've never actually seen anything to actually BACK these claims up. The supposed people he "reactivated" are primarily people in the Rust Belt and Appalachians. In neither of those places did Trump do any different than many Republican candidates had in the past with a single expection.
To make sure folks understand the places we're talking about. The Appalachian states are Pennsylvania, Maryland*, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Meanwhile the Rust Belt States are Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and being generous Wisconsin.
You know which of those States was unique to Trump from the past two Republican Presidents? Wisconsin. Every other State in those lists either was and remained solid Democrat (Maryland), or had swung between Democrats and Republicans in that period (literally every other State). West Virginia had moved to the R column ENTIRELY by 2000 and had not changed since. Indiana likewise was solid R EXCEPT for 2008. Ohio had been a bellwether state for decades, going for the winner in every election going back decades UNTIL 2020. Meanwhile, Trump UNDERPERFORMED Romney in Virginia in 2016, which Obama had managed to turn D in 2008 but barely lost. Where are those supposed dissatisfied voters in Appalachia in one of the States with the largest swath of the Appalachian mountains in the country?
Meanwhile the rest of the Appalachian corridor WAS safe R territory. Kentucky and Tennessee had not voted for a Democrat since 1996 (and like W. Virginia they'd shifted to the Rs in 2000 and remains solid since). N. Carolina was more debatable as it had gone for Obama in 2008, but had gone back to the Rs for ROMNEY for goodness sake, and polling there generally put Rs ahead and, oh, N.Carolina was another State where the Republican Senate candidate GOT MORE VOTES than Trump did (also winning his race). South Carolina had been solid R since 1976 and was another State where the Republican senator outperformed Trump. Georgia likewise was long term R and again, saw their senator outperform Trump.
So in the Appalachian corridor we don't see Trump changing ANYTHING. Now, the Rust Belt is more favorable to Trump in this analysis. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin being in play ARE quite probably due to Trump... but here's the thing: someone like Rubio likely could have seen Virginia, New Hampshire, and other States in play that Trump didn't, and if the Rs pick up, say, Virginia in 2016 they wouldn't need ANY of the non-regularly R voting Rust Belt states that Trump won to win (all they'd need to keep were Indiana (a gimmee) and Ohio (also highly likely with a generic R vs Clinton)). Finally, those states Trump won? He then proceeded to lose them all, and more, in 2020, losing Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona.
Now, let me guess, this is where you claim "vote fraud". Let's say that I agree with you, that all those states were stolen in 2020. What's you're plan for Trump having a chance there in 2024? Which states that he lost in 2020 can he flip back to win in 2024? How do you propose he overcome the margin of fraud in the Rust Belt states in order to recapture them? He burned his bridges with the Arizona and Georgia GOP, and the Dems resolidified their control of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Given how much antipathy towards Trump is on the other side, and their willingness to do everything they can to stop him from having power (you need to remember, the Dems and media basically painted Trump as a existential threat to the Republic in a way they had not done to any Republican before, and they cannot pull that same stunt off again because other candidates are not Trump and do not engender the same strong response in people Trump did... and that strong response is, in large part, why they COULD get away with the fraud they did, because people thought they were saving the Republic. Against any other Republican candidate they'd not be able to engender the same amount of panic and danger they did with Trump, they don't have the time to, nor the specific events to.
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* Only by strictest definition, the amount of Maryland in the Appalachians is negligible, hence why it never swings R due to the small amount of rural and Appalachian areas compared to the urban cooridore that is DC-Baltimore-Annapolis