NY GOP head Ed Cox declares org won’t endorse Trump before primary

Ed Cox returned to the top of the state Republican Party on Monday — and immediately declared the organization won’t back a candidate in the 2024 presidential primary, including former President Donald Trump.

“That’s what I did in 2016,” Cox, 76, told The Post as he reclaimed the position of party chairman after a four-year absence.

Cox — who previously held the title from 2009 to 2019 — was referring to the state GOP remaining neutral for the 2016 race for the White House.

“Donald Trump asked me a week before the primary to endorse him. I told him, `I can’t do that,’ ” Cox recalled — explaining that in open races without an incumbent, that’s his standard position.

Hometown Trump easily won the New York primary in 2016, and afterward, Cox and the establishment rallied around him.

The party endorsed the incumbent Trump when he sought re-election in 2020.

Cox — who is married to late President Richard Nixon’s daughter Trish — said he wanted to give all of the 2024 GOP candidates an opportunity to stump across the state and raise money for local Republican clubs.

“We want all the Republican candidates for president to show up,” Cox said.

But longtime Trump booster Carl Paladino slammed Cox as an “anachronism” and said the state GOP should embrace Trump “as our guy.

“What did Trump do wrong? Trump is what this country needs right now. Trump instills confidence in the future,” said Paladino, a firebrand Buffalo-area businessman who co-chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign in New York.

Trump, 76, is a declared candidate in his bid to reclaim the White House.

Nikki Haley, the former GOP South Carolina governor who served as the Trump-appointed US ambassador to the United Nations, also has officially jumped into the primary race along with little-known tech executive Vivek Ramaswamy.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also is expected to enter the GOP race, while former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu are eyeing a run, too.

While it’s early in the process, recent polls show that DeSantis would be Trump’s most formidable primary foe for the GOP nomination to take on Democratic President Biden, 80, the oldest commander-in-chief ever.

During Cox’s chairman-acceptance speech at the Marriott hotel in Albany, he said Republicans were for “safer streets, good jobs and good schools.”

He claimed the Democrats in charge of state government made New York less safe with bail reform, blocked jobs by opposing fracking or natural gas extraction and are opposing efforts to expand charter schools.

Meanwhile, upstate Rep. Nick Langworthy, the outcoming GOP chairman, treated fellow Congressman George Santos — a serial liar facing investigations for his fibs and shady finances — as a pariah at the event.

Langworthy rattled off the names of all the Republican congressional members except Santos, quipping, “We’ll skip one” — to the delight of the crowd, the Albany Times Union.

Cox helped bankroll the successful legal fight last year that blocked state Democrats from gerrymandering local congressional districts, leading the GOP to pick up seats in New York and help secure a House majority.

He also worked with Ron Lauder to raise money through Super Pacs to aid Republican Lee Zeldin’s strong campaign for governor against Democrat Kathy Hochul, which also helped GOP candidates in down-ballot races.

Cox joined the Trump campaign when Trump booster Langworthy replaced him as party chairman.

A corporate and finance lawyer, Cox has poured his own wealth into party coffers over years.

Cox was involved in creating the SUNY Charter School Institute under former three-term GOP Gov. George Pataki and backs the push to lift the cap on charter schools in New York City.     

He and his wife Tricia Nixon met as high school students and were famously married in the White House’s Rose Garden in 1971.

Cox re-emerged as the safe choice for party chair when other candidates failed to catch fire — including Michael Henry, the state GOP candidate for attorney general last year; Rockland County GOP chairman Lawrence Garvey; Hudson Valley Assemblyman and congressional candidate Colin Schmitt and upstate Assemblyman Chris Tague, who is chairman of the Schoharie Republican Party.