House Speaker Mike Johnson‘s (R-LA) grip on his caucus has strengthened but hasn’t stopped members from trying to reshape the ranks.
Despite his directives to Republican colleagues to put aside their differences and support incumbents in the House over primary challengers, the assault on the razor-thin majority has continued apace. And although initial attempts to oust members who hard-line lawmakers say aren’t conservative enough have failed, there doesn’t appear to be any change coming.
Several Republicans told Punchbowl News it was worth becoming the minority party in November if that meant they could recruit more hard-line members.
“With the shape this country is in, we have to go with the most conservative members,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said. “If you make the right choice, you have to first change what’s going on up here with the spending and with the Washington inside clique that just wants to do the same thing over and over again.”
Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), Mike Bost (R-IL), William Timmons (R-SC), and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) are all members who have been on the chopping block. Newhouse is one of the two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his actions on Jan. 6.
And the attacks aren’t only coming for Republicans at odds with the Freedom Caucus.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-VA) is in trouble with Trump and is facing challengers for not being conservative enough. His opponent is John McGuire, who is endorsed by multiple House Republicans and Trump.
Still, as chairman of the Freedom Caucus, he sees primary challengers as a good strategy to move the party farther right despite being targeted himself.
“Republicans around the country want somebody who is going to vote with Republicans,” Good said. “They want somebody who actually wants to secure the border, somebody who’s a genuine conservative fighter, and not somebody that’s part of the uniparty establishment that’s been passing these major spending bills with Democrats.”
Some centrist Republicans have weathered the primary storm by beating their challengers in hard fights. Gonzales and Bost were successful in contests earlier this year and will be the Republican nominees for their districts.
And not every Republican is on board with the infighting.
Reps. Eric Burlison (R-MO) and Cory Mills (R-FL) don’t see punching inside the party as a winning strategy. And Freedom Caucus founder Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said he doesn’t “engage in that.”
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“I’m not one of the people in the Freedom Caucus getting involved with primary challengers,” Burlison said. “If I’m serving with that person, I’m going to give them the respect of not getting involved in that race.”
“We certainly risk losing the majority if we don’t really focus on how we achieve this goal and not just make an effort to oust them,” Mills said.