Another issue has emerged for House Republicans, who have witnessed their tenure in power deteriorate into an apparently continuous string of intraparty feuds. Republican lawmakers are now vying to unseat other sitting members in their primaries.
Republican lawmakers are actively running against one other in four primaries: South Carolina, Illinois, Texas, and Virginia. This is adding fuel to the fire in a conference where feelings are still raw following Kevin McCarthy’s historic removal from leadership.
Legislator Mike Johnson is sick of it.
At this week’s House GOP retreat in West Virginia, Johnson told AWN, “I’ve asked them all to cool it. Since it serves no useful purpose, I am strongly against members engaging in member-on-member activity during primaries. For reasons that should be readily apparent, it also drives a wedge between us, and we should avoid doing that.
“So I’m telling everyone who’s doing that to knock it off,” Johnson added.. “And on both sides, you’ll hear statements like, ‘Well, they started it, not us.'”
Florida Republican firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is leading the charge against two GOP incumbents—Illinois’ Mike Bost and Texas’ Tony Gonzales—remains unconvinced.
“I would love nothing more than to just go after Democrats,” Gaetz, the man who spearheaded the effort to remove McCarthy, claimed to AWN. But I will also take action against Republicans who pretend to be Democrats in drag. Simply put, the number of Republicans we have in Congress is not the ultimate measure of our success. Whether or not we manage to rescue the nation will determine our fate.
The 118th Congress was distinguished by stalemate and internal GOP fighting, and this feud highlights how the razor-thin House majority has been practically ungovernable. Many Republicans think they should strive for modest successes at a period of split government, aligning with hardliners who espouse a no-compromise attitude and want to go toe-to-toe with Democrats.
However, Republicans have been preoccupied with internal party disputes over strategies for months, which many believe will further complicate their efforts to maintain their two-seat majority. The tension is rising due to the key clashes.
The attitude within the House GOP is “depressing,” according to Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who represents a swing area and needs to conduct “some soul-searching.”
Having members of your own team turn on one other is discouraging since it usually leads to defeat. “Teams win,” according to Bacon. To be quite honest, we have weakened the standards that have been in place for, well, a couple of centuries. … Our campaigns are now intersecting in one other’s districts. The squad suffers as a result. Thus, in my opinion, that is incorrect.’
The main assaults are bidirectional.
One of the incumbents who is struggling to hold on is Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina. Several members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus are attempting to remove him from his position and replace him with his right-wing opponent.
Rep. Ralph Norman, a fellow Republican from South Carolina and a member of the House Freedom Caucus, stated that he and perhaps twelve other conservative House Republicans are preparing to host a “major event” in support of Adam Morgan, the opponent of Timmons and the head of the Freedom Caucus in South Carolina.
Norman dismissed his coworkers’ criticisms, calling Morgan “one of us.”
“We need to make some serious adjustments,” Norman stated to AWN. Our nation is slipping away from us. We’ve run out of money. In my view, he just needed to step up and lead. Additionally, we now have a male leading the South Carolina Freedom Caucus. For liberty, he will struggle. And we will count him among us.
Insiders say that last week in a closed-door meeting, Timmons—who is endorsed by Trump—defended his conservative voting record and vented his concerns.
My guess is that they’re arguing over something else entirely, and it has nothing to do with me. “But you know, at the end of the day, you’re not going to have a lot of friends if you’re not friends with somebody that votes with you 94% of the time,” Timmons told AWN.
Hardliners aren’t the only ones taking action against their coworkers, either. According to several sources, six Republicans typically aligned with leadership, including Mike Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, are scheduled to attend a fundraiser for the Republican seeking to unseat Bob Good, chair of the Freedom Caucus.
Along with eight other Republicans, Good voted to remove McCarthy from office. His outspoken personality has earned him critics inside the Republican conference, notably Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia, who is supporting Good’s main opponent, Navy SEAL John McGuire.
Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, who likewise voted to remove McCarthy from office, claims that his vote has made him a target in his own primary.
According to Crane, “you know how this town works” (AWN). You can’t just show in and cause a ruckus without paying the price, can you? So, it’s good in my opinion. That I’m doing my purpose here is confirmed by it.
