Three Republican Congressmen who voted to impeach Donald Trump are on the primary ballot today, facing the voters who will determine their political fate.
Reps. Peter Meijer, (R-Mich.), Jaime Herrera Beutler, (R-Wash.), and Dan Newhouse, (R-Wash.), are all competing against Trump-backed primary challengers. The incumbents have vastly outraised their challengers in campaign donations, but that didn’t do other GOP incumbents who voted for impeachment any good.
Reps. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, John Katko, R-N.Y., Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., all opted to retire at the end of their term. Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., lost to a Trump-backed challenger in June while Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., staved off a primary challenge that same month, though Trump did not endorse him in his race.
Meijer’s opponent, John Gibbs, is being backed by the National Democratic Party to the tune of half a million dollars in ad buys. The Democrats believe that Gibbs would be easier to defeat in the general election than Meijer. The donations have angered many rank-and-file Democrats who look askance at their national party making a huge deal about the January 6 Capitol riot while promoting a candidate who agrees with the rioters that the election was stolen.
Meijer may squeak through to the general election given the fact that Democrats can vote in the Republican primary as well. And in Washington, Beutler and Newhouse are running in non-partisan primaries where the top two vote-getters move on to the November election.
“Well, the conventional wisdom is he’s a dead man walking,” Roe, who was forced out of his job last year for saying the 2020 election wasn’t stolen but that Trump “blew it,” said, adding, “I give him an outside chance still.”
But Roe said Meijer’s recent votes in support of a bill that would codify legal same-sex marriage nationwide and a gun safety package was a “huge miscalculation” ahead of a primary where he is already being hammered for crossing Trump.
If Meijer isn’t a “dead man walking,” he’ll need to pull a Houdini to get out of the mess he made for himself.
At the very least, you would hope that the candidates who replace the anti-Trump apostates would be strong enough to keep the districts red. Otherwise, it might reduce the GOP majority heading into 2024.
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