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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / NATIONWIDE, REPUBLICANS RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION ARE UNDER SEIGE

NATIONWIDE, REPUBLICANS RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION ARE UNDER SEIGE

August 8, 2022 by tbreport 8 Comments

Trump-aligned challengers ousting GOP legislative incumbents

By TODD RICHMOND and DAVID A. LIEB
AP TODAY
Aug. 6, 2022
FILE - Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talks to the media after Gov. Tony Evers addressed a joint session of the Legislature in the Assembly chambers during the Governor's State of the State speech at the state Capitol, Feb. 15, 2022, in Madison, Wis. More Republican state lawmakers are losing their primaries this year than in any other election over the past decade, dispatched by far-right challengers who say the incumbents are not conservative enough. Next up is Wisconsin, where both Republican legislative leaders are among several incumbents facing primary challenges. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talks to the media after Gov. Tony Evers addressed a joint session of the Legislature in the Assembly chambers during the Governor’s State of the State speech at the state Capitol, Feb. 15, 2022, in Madison, Wis. More Republican state lawmakers are losing their primaries this year than in any other election over the past decade, dispatched by far-right challengers who say the incumbents are not conservative enough. Next up is Wisconsin, where both Republican legislative leaders are among several incumbents facing primary challenges. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — As Wisconsin’s longest-serving Assembly speaker, Republican Robin Vos has presided over efforts to restrict abortions, weaken unions, expand gun rights and push back against COVID-19 mandates. Despite that, he’s facing a primary challenger who claims he’s not conservative enough.

The challenger’s argument: Vos should do more to respond to former President Donald Trump’s unfounded allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

Primary challengers like the one facing Vos next Tuesday have been successfully targeting incumbent state lawmakers across the country, and Republicans are taking the brunt of it.

With more than half the state legislative primaries concluded, Republican incumbents this year have been losing at nearly twice the average rate of the past decade, according to data compiled for The Associated Press by the election tracking organization Ballotpedia. The primary loss rate for Democratic state lawmakers is similar to previous elections.

The Republican losses continued to mount Tuesday, as Trump-endorsed candidates ousted incumbent state senators in Arizona and Michigan and a conservative challenger beat the assistant majority leader of the Missouri Senate. In Michigan, six GOP incumbents running for re-election in the state House lost, although two of those were defeated by fellow Republicans when they were drawn into the same district in the decennial reapportionment. Though not technically an incumbent, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers also lost a bid for state Senate after being criticized for refusing to help Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In many cases, Republican lawmakers are being defeated by challengers portraying themselves as more conservative on election integrity, transgender policies, school instruction and other hot-button issues.

“We have a far-right faction that is very dissatisfied with what’s happening on the left. So if you are not rabidly a fanatic that just punches every button, then you’re going to have an issue,” said Arkansas state Rep. Craig Christiansen, who lost in a Republican primary earlier this year.

Though Christiansen considers himself “very conservative,” he drew multiple challengers and failed to advance to a runoff. That came after he voted against overriding Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of legislation making Arkansas the first state banning gender-confirming treatments for those younger than 18. Christiansen said he considered the legislation unconstitutional, because it lacked an exception for youths already undergoing such treatments.

Vos, who has served as Wisconsin Assembly speaker since 2013, has taken sharp criticism for not pursuing a resolution decertifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Trump endorsed his Republican challenger, Adam Steen, saying that “Vos refused to do anything to right the wrongs that were done” in the 2020 election.

Under pressure from Trump, Vos hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman last year to investigate the election. Gableman said decertifying the election was “a practical impossibility.”

Steen said he decided to challenge Vos because he failed to pass legislation outlawing absentee ballot drop boxes ahead of the 2020 election and hasn’t pushed for tougher consequences for voter fraud, among other things.

“Conservatism as a whole has been lethargic,” Steen said. “We lack vision, and I think that vision is coming back.”

Vos said Steen is running on hyperbole. He said Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, poses the real obstacle to conservatives. Evers, for example, vetoed Republican bills that would have made it harder to vote absentee.

“If we don’t get a Republican governor, (Steen) would have less success than I had,” Vos said.

Vos is one of nine GOP Wisconsin lawmakers facing primaries. Though the challengers face an uphill fight, they could push the already conservative Legislature even further right if they notch a few victories. That would mark a significant shift in a state that plays a crucial role in national elections.

Twenty-seven states had held legislative primaries or conventions before Tuesday. In those, at least 110 Republican incumbents and 33 Democrats had been defeated. The Republican loss rate of 7.1% far exceeds the Democratic rate of 2.8%. It also significantly exceeds the 3.6% average Republican incumbent loss rate over the previous decade in those states, as well as the 4.4% Republican loss rate in those states during the last redistricting election cycle in 2012.

Idaho voters have led the way in ousting Republican incumbents, defeating 18 GOP lawmakers — or 30% of those who sought reelection — even while choosing GOP Gov. Brad Little over a Trump-backed challenger who claimed he wasn’t conservative enough. The losers included three lawmakers representing Kootenai County in northern Idaho, where a local Republican committee recommended conservative challengers against some incumbents after a lengthy vetting process.

“People have kind of had it, and they’re willing to get up and vote,” said Brent Regan, chair of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed primary opponents to four GOP state House members who hadn’t supported her plan to provide taxpayer-funded scholarships for students to attend private schools. All four incumbents lost, including House Education Committee Chairman Dustin Hite.

Even in some Democratic-dominated states, Republican primary voters have ousted incumbents deemed not conservative enough.

Illinois state Rep. David Welter, one of nine Republican lawmakers booted from the chamber in February for ignoring COVID-19 protocols to wear masks, lost his primary in June to a challenger who claimed Welter wasn’t Republican enough. Challenger Jed Davis criticized Welter’s votes for the Equal Rights Amendment and a construction bill containing a gas tax hike, among other things.

Davis also derided Welter’s connections to U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who became a GOP outcast after voting to impeach Trump and participating in the Democratic-led House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Welter once worked for Kinzinger’s campaign and received $32,500 in contributions since 2021 from committees associated with Kinzinger.

“People pegged me as more of a moderate,” Welter said. “I’m now going to be replaced by somebody who is really, really far to the extreme on the right.”

Welter believes redistricting after the 2020 census also played a role in his defeat by shifting the voters he represented.

In states where partisan officials controlled redistricting, such as Illinois, the maps enacted for the 2022 elections often contained “more and more extreme partisan gerrymanders,” according to a recent analysis by political scientists and data experts.

When legislative districts tilt further right or left, incumbents are more likely to face challengers, and candidates who take more extreme positions are more likely to win, according to an analysis in a forthcoming book by Saint Louis University political scientist Steven Rogers.

Wisconsin’s state legislative districts had some of the largest pro-Republican tilts among all states during the past decade and underwent only minor changes before this year’s election.

Most of the challengers there are likely to lose, said University of Wisconsin-La Crosse political scientist Anthony Chergosky. But they still could leave their mark by forcing incumbents further right to please the GOP base that votes in primaries.

“We are just experiencing a real scramble for power within the Republican Party right now,” he said. “President Trump is really flexing his muscles in directing activists in the party against people like Robin Vos. Anyone in a position of authority in the Republican Party is a target.”

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David L Richards says

    August 8, 2022 at 10:50 am

    A major distinguishing factor that separates the losing Republican incumbents from their successful primary challengers is “election security”. The frightening thing about that is the only credible threat to election security has been Trump’s attempt to coerce state officials to ignore the voters in their states. And these successful challengers are all Trump people, attaching themselves to the biggest threat there is in the US to election security.

    Reply
  2. WILLIAM j RAUWERDINK says

    August 8, 2022 at 12:35 pm

    The only “credible threat” to secure elections is the continued attempts to block any and all real investigations into 2020. This will continue through 2022 and voters are tired of the lies.

    Reply
    • Ed Haynor says

      August 8, 2022 at 1:32 pm

      Perhaps Trump-backed Matthew DePerno, Michigan republican candidate for attorney general, after state police found evidence that he helped orchestrate attempts to illegally seize and gain access to voting equipment, an effort fueled by conspiracy theorists like you, that the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud, can lead your investigation?

      Reply
  3. Eric Petersen says

    August 8, 2022 at 2:59 pm

    I don’t know what color the sky is in David Richards world, but I think the rest of us are well aware that the biggest threat to election security is not Trump supporters but rather the Damocrat party who successfully stole the 2016 presidential election

    Reply
    • Ed Haynor says

      August 8, 2022 at 7:24 pm

      How is it possible that the “Damocrat party” stole the 2016 presidential election when republican Trump won? My goodness, what planet do you live on?

      Reply
      • Worldwide says

        August 9, 2022 at 12:33 am

        Eric might be referring to the 2016 Democratic primary, where Hillary stole the election from Sanders, or it’s just a typo. Getting inside the minds of faceless commentators to better understand the world can be a fun hobby, if not time consuming.

        Reply
        • Ed Haynor says

          August 9, 2022 at 9:26 am

          Well said, by a faceless and no name commentator.

          Reply
  4. Dick Haefner says

    September 3, 2022 at 11:31 am

    The direction of these comments is indicative of the real problem the Republicans face in November. The responses descend into the well worn accusations of stolen elections and conspiracies. The real problem for GOPers: can the candidates win their elections? If Trumpers are pushing out incumbents who they call RINOs, they may be leaving open the middle of the field for Democrat campaigners to seize. This would allow Democrats to win in some districts held by the ousted Republicans. I have thought all along that the Right is way overconfident of the Red Wave they predict, Michigan included. So far I think my theory appears to be on target.

    Reply

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