Did I Mention Their Dysfunctional Leadership?
Extreme right House Republicans in safe hillbilly districts— to use Gym Jordan’s parlance— have forced scores of unpopular anti-Choice and anti-LGBTQ amendments into a dozen appropriations bills and are threatening— loudly— to shut down the government if the Senate tries to remove the amendments. This makes the whole House Republican conference look terrible, not just the Marjorie Traitor Greenes, Paul Gosars and Lauren Boeberts but even the ones from swing districts who pretend to be “moderates,” like Mike Lawler, Anthony D’Esposito, Marc Molinaro and Nick LaLota in New York, David Valadao, John Duarte, Mike Garcia, Ken Calvert, Michelle Steel and Young Kim in California and others scattered around the country, from Lori Chavez DeRemer in Oregon, Don Bacon in Nebraska and Maria Salazar in Florida to John James in Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania and Tom Kean in New Jersey.
The state of Ohio has a PVI of R+6 and Tuesday night it rejected the GOP’s slimy attempt to criminalize women’s Choice by double digits, 57-43%. There are a lot of Republicans being asked to— or wanting to in many cases— take away Choice. Let me give you a few examples of Republican incumbents who could be getting themselves into a great deal of trouble with their own constituents by continuing to be led around by the nose by extremists like Marjorie Traitor Greene. I’m not even going to districts as conservative as Ohio’s R+3. These districts are all a LOT bluer than that and all have Republican incumbents voting to criminalize abortion:
AZ-01 (Dave Schweikert)- R+2
CA-13 (John Duarte)- D+4
CA-22 (David Valadao)- D+5
CA-27 (Mike Garcia)- D+4
CA-40 (Young Kim)- R+2
CA-45 (Michelle Steel)- D+2
FL-27 (Maria Salazar)- even PVI
FL-28 (Carlos Giménez)- R+2
NE-02 (Don Bacon)- even PVI
NJ-07 (Tom Kean)- R+1
NY-03 (George Santos)- D+2
NY-04 (Anthony D’Esposito)- D+5
NY-17 (Mike Lawler)- D+3
NY-19 (Marc Molinaro)- even PVI
NY-22 (Brandon Williams)- D+1
OR-05 (Lori Chavez-DeRemer)- D+2
PA-01 (Brian Fitzpatrick)- even PVI
TX-15 (Monica De La Cruz)- R+1
VA-02 (Jen Kiggans)- R+2
I didn’t include Tony Gonzales’ Rio Grande district because the PVI is R+5 and I decided to cut off at R+2… but he senses danger— and he’s pissed off at the extremists in the Freedom Caucus who keep force-feeding this unpopular amendments to the whole GOP conference, threatening to gum up the works if they don’t get their way. “Here’s the deal,” said Gonzales. “You’ve already used up the three genies that I have. From here on out, I’m gonna be taking care of home base. The 2024 election cycle is shaping up to be one where it’s every man, woman and child for themselves. And a lot of members that are in tough seats.”
Although she’s the least dependable Republican in the House— and never diverges from the extremists no matter what she says before votes, Nancy Mace is in a swing district with an R+7 PVI, severely gerrymandered a possibly subject by the courts to new lines. Her latest bullshit: “If we keep members in swing districts— we put them on the plank every single week, we’re gonna have huge problems. And it may be too late for that. There’s only so much people can take before they say enough is enough.” Except her; enough is never enough for this lunatic… currently telling people she’d like to be Trump’s running-mate. In case you forgot, Trump campaigned against her last time she ran.
The only thing that saved David Valadao last time is that the DCCC insisted on recruiting a Mod Squad Democrat best known as the most corrupt Democrat in the state Assembly— and the most conservative, exactly what the DCCC thrives on. Although Valadao represents one of the bluest seats any Republican holds, he beat the pathetic Rudy Salas in one of the lowest turnout districts in America, 52,994 (51.5%) to 49,862 (48.5%)— after the DCCC wasted $10 million on the campaign. He’s probably not too worried because the DCCC is happily running Salas again. This turd:
Valadao, a close ally of McCarthy’s, who plans to spend whatever it takes to match the DCCC: “The reality is, the majority of the conference is where they are. And as the amendment process plays out, as long as we have the ability to debate those issues on the floor and have our votes, I think we’ll do what we need to do.” If he had a real opponent he wouldn’t stand a chance. But instead, he has Rudy Salas… and the DCCC.