This piece for members is by David T.S. Jonas @ Politicalwire
Late Saturday evening, Rep. Denver Riggleman (R) of Virginia’s 5th district lost his renomination fight to “bright red Biblical” challenger Bob Good. Good captured 58% of the delegates in a low-turnout, drive-thru convention that was—rather conveniently—held at a church close to Good’s home. In a district of roughly 750,000 residents, fewer than 3,000 voters decided Riggleman’s fate.
Riggleman had been a reliable conservative vote in Congress, enjoying President Trump’s “total endorsement” and looked like a major favorite to get re-elected had he reached the general. But after officiating a wedding between two male staffers and advocating more libertarian positions on issues like immigration and drug legalization, Republican activists recruited Good to mount a bid to oust Riggleman. It worked.
Such upsets are relatively rare, so the impulse may be to dismiss this as a rounding error in terms of what this race tells us about the Republican Party. After all, following Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D) successful challenge to Joe Crowley in 2018, Democratic primary voters nationally saw fit to coalesce around and nominate Joe Biden in 2020. Riggleman is only the third Republican incumbent in Congress to outright lose renomination this cycle….
I don’t get what this snippet has to do with the headline.
It references the future of the Republican Party. What just occurred in Virginia foretells a future of the GOP without Trump where the crazies still rule the nominating process. They threw out a perfectly good conservative (with a libertarian streak) for a religious nutcase because that good conservative happens to believe in gay rights.
Thank You Keith….
The ‘cleansing’ might actually be beginning after all….
And obviously that might mean that the AOC wing has taken over the Democrats and is the future of that party, regardless of if Biden wins or loses.
We already saw Lipinski lose in Illinois and it looks like mainstream liberal Eliot Engel might go down in New York this month to an AOC type.
Lipinski wasn’t “mainstream” in the Democratic Party.
As to Eliot Engel, he’s been there long enough.
Though to be honest I don’t know how I’d vote if I lived in that district.
In my own deep blue House district I supported the insurgent in 2018 for a change, but I’m supporting the incumbent now.
Riggleman was only in there one term so it’s not like there was fatigue.
He officiated at a gay wedding and that’s still a no no for the base of the party that shows up for these things.
The concept that a little known freshman, who was a post primary replacement candidate two years ago, could lose in a very low participation convention amid a pandemic is not exactly evidence of something of great political meaning.
Why don’t you wait for more evidence… There was very little difference on the issues between Riggleman and Good. The media likes to focus on the gay rights issue but I suspect for very conservative voters, it is not high on the agenda, either pro or con.
I note that there was no comment on Steve King losing in a primary in Iowa.
Generally speaking, both parties are headed towards further polarization on ideological lines.
I commented that Steve King’s departure was a good thing for Congress and the party.
Of course, as James notes below, Republicans are also nominating Q-Anon conspiracy theorists –so again, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Yea Scott’s right….
Lipinski was needed before 2018….
With their big House majority he became expendable to Democrats
House GOP Leaders Condemn Candidate In Georgia
“The House’s highest-ranking Republicans are racing to distance themselves from a leading GOP congressional candidate in Georgia after Politico uncovered hours of Facebook videos in which she expresses racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views,” Politico reports.
“The candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people ‘are held slaves to the Democratic Party’; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, a Nazi; and said she would feel ‘proud’ to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War.”
Greene is also the QAnon follower who beat her closest primary opponent by more than 20%.
Politicalwire….
…
Trump Congratulates QAnon Believer In Georgia
President Trump congratulated congressional candidate Marjorie Greene (R), calling the QAnon believer a “big winner” after a strong finish in Georgia’s congressional primary.
Greene still faces a runoff on August 11 against physician John Cowan (R), who was 20 points behind her in the primary.
You guys have a Senate nominee in Nebraska that is being called on to exit the race after making sexual comments about a staffer.
Come ON!….
Is the guy gonna win🙄?
Well, he is refusing to leave the race, so the party has formally written him off now.
Maybe there will be a nutcase in Congress from Georgia next year. It looks like the House GOP is trying to prop up her runoff opponent. She will likely use that against him.
It’s just a further demonstration that Democrats are not a Big Tent party and have no intention of being one.
They will tolerate Biden this time because they just want to get rid of Trump, but if Biden wins, the pressure on him from the left will be very intense.
Biden will dance with the left like all Democrats do and move to middle by Election Day….
Biden’s middle BTW IS left of Obama’s….And Clinton for sure….
I am talking about if he is President. He will dance when they say dance or they will turn on him. This is part of the reason I think there will be voices within the party calling on him to resign well in advance of the 2024 election.
So?
There are “voices” within the Republican Party calling on Trump to resign.
Big deal.
Lots of “voices” around.
Joe Biden has been running for President on and off for thirty two years.
If he wins, I doubt that some “voices” calling for his resignation will have much effect.
Well I guess that’s the beauty of writing in someone that has no chance in hell of winning.
No one will ever call on him or her or it to resign.
It will be louder in your party if Biden wins.
Remember the old axiom, “Republicans fall in line.”
Democrats are typically the rabble rousers.
and Biden is saying he has every intention of running for reelection, so there will be dividing lines early on if he wins.
You better hope Republicans don’t keep “falling in line” with the Trumps–as they show no sign on stopping now.
Or else your sabbatical from the party could last even longer as the GOP gets ready to nominate DJT Sr or Jr in 2024 and you are stuck once again voting in someone or thing as a write in
Clearly the Congressman was denied, in a party convention, renomination because he officiated a gay wedding. Simply because he believed that two people who love each other should have the right to legally marry and enjoy all the protections and responsibilities of marriage. The Republican Party (see the proposed Party Platform) is opposed to gay marriage and gay employment rights. No amount of whataboutism can change that fact.
It’s interesting that John Bolton is reporting that Trump asked the President of China to “help him win re-election” like an episode of VEEP. Reality imitating art. The only difference, VEEP is a comedy. This Administration is a tragedy.
How many Republican Senators will be unable to comment, and when will Susan Collins express concern?
I think there are other factors why Riggleman lost. I had no dog in this fight (but am pleased to see Trump’s endorsement streak take a hit), but he was considered a gadfly (Bigfoot erotica, etc), and freshmen Congresspeople are always the most likely to be defeated for reelection among incumbents.
Selena was a Democrat.
I should watch more Veep, but for some reason I thought they kept party labels out of it.
Which is probably a good idea if you want to reach the broadest audience.
I know right wingers liked pointing to “House of Cards” because the evil Frank Underwood was a Democrat.
A Democrat who supported Republican type voter suppression and war mongering. Though he did endorse a New Deal type jobs program.
Frank and Selena are fictional characters, and Trump is a real life traitor and his party supports him without reservation.
But, hey, any whatabout will do when your party is being totally embarrassed.
They never explicitly mention party but there is zero doubt that Selina Meyer served as a Democrat in her political career.
Just for one example, it is taken as a given that she is in the pro-choice party and must take that stance unfailingly and her opponents are the Pro-Life party,
Well the audience that the VEEP folks were after really fits the more educated, enlightened, and forward thinking demographic that is represented in the Democratic Party. I cannot envision a bible thumping, anti-gay, anti-immigrant Republican finding Selena amusing.
But, it is inescapable, her scene with the Chinese President does mirror exactly what happened with Trump.
Right now Trump is busy trying to make Biden the pro-Chinese candidate. How does he square all that advertising with his treason? What will Lady G say? Or Mitch?
The same Trump that wanted the Chinese leader to help him get re-elected by cutting a deal?
Just falls in line with Trump’s SOP….
He thinks that his trade throw down against China will enable him to leverage a back room ‘deal’ with
the Chinese ?
No Joy.,,,
If we notice ?
Right Now?
NOBODY is gonna make a ‘deal’ with Donald Trump who has failed at diplomacy …
The ass kissing is LONG GONE….
They’ll ALL wait for Biden ….
In an excerpt of his book provided to the Wall Street Journal, John Bolton claims President Trump “nodded approvingly” when Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested the United States held “too many elections.”
Writes Bolton: “One highlight came when Xi said he wanted to work with Trump for six more years, and Trump replied that people were saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for him. Xi said the U.S. had too many elections, because he didn’t want to switch away from Trump, who nodded approvingly.”
Yep, old Joe is too close to China. How does Trump explain that loan he has with the National Bank of China? Obviously and case of “do as I say.”
Time to bring back the caravans. What else do Republicans have left except fear of brown people.
We’ll see how AOC does herself next Tuesday…..
Spoiler alert: she wins easily
Yeah that’s how I read it too Keith. Trump’s support of the incumbent didn’t seem to matter. But at the same time the nutcases ruled the roost.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Not a good sign if people think the Republican Party will return to mainstream Reagan conservatives if Trump is booted out of the WH this fall. They will still have some cleaning up to do, even without Trump.
The impeached son of a Klansman isn’t having a good week now is he?
Now the DACA ruling.
When will the profile in courage Republicans in Congress speak up?
If John Bolton had testified when he had the opportunity I would have some respect for him. But like all the Republican Senators, except an occasional one, he is a money grubbing pussy. They are all afraid of a pre-dementia bully.
Real patriots would stand up to Trump.
Veep was a good show. I only watched the series after it was already over, but they sure did make Selina Meyer pretty irredeemable and I thought it was interesting that a bunch of liberals would actually do that with a liberal character.
and maybe Trump “having trouble walking down a ramp and holding a glass of water” is him turning into Jed Bartlett from The West Wing and his secret bout with MS.
I think the revelations from the Bolton book make it clear that the Democrats botched impeachment. Clearly, he had more information and was prepared to testify to more than people realized. There is no guarantee this would have shifted public opinion drastically, but it certainly would not have helped Trump. The Democrats should have agreed to a deal to put Hunter Biden under oath in exchange for Bolton. One for one. It would likely have hurt Trump more than Biden.
And yes, now the left will take Bolton at his word. I agree he is likely telling the truth in his book, but he should have revealed whatever he could as a public service before he was in the position to benefit financially from it.
Botched impeachment ?
It WAS about the fucking votes….
Give us a BREAK!
Mueller ducks
Barr says he’ll follow Trump to hell and back
And
The Republican MAJORITY wouldn’t convict if Trump was dancing with Putin in the White House‼️
Someone needs to actually check what happened during impeachment instead of simply making shit up.
Did impeachment “help Trump”?
If so why is he losing to Biden by double digits now?
There is nothing that Bolton could have said during the hearings that would have significantly changed Republican’s feelings about Trump.
And Trump could publicly say that there should be concentration camps in China, and no one would be surprised. And furthermore that would not impact hardly anyone’s vote either – probably not even Jewish Republicans from the Midwest.
People who are not morally outraged about Trump by now will never be.
Hey old friend….Welcome Back!
So true…
The impeachment of Trump was “botched ,” if that be the word ,for the simple reason that all the Republican Senators,save one, lacked the moral courage to do the right thing.
If John Bolton has appeared before the Senate and repeated all the accusations made in his book?I seriously doubt if it would have changed one Republican vote.
CG has to believe deep down that it was the Democrats fault that Trump was not removed from office.
In all likelihood he will be voting for one of those GOP Senators who voted to acquit Trump in 2024 or beyond and he has to hold out hope that he or she would have done the “right thing” if only those pesky Democrats–who all voted to remove him–hadn’t screwed it up!
The pretzel logic he will go through to justify supporting Tom Cotton, Marsha Blackburn or Josh Hawley for President in 4 or 8 years will be hysterical to watch.
I was speaking about the public opinion aspect of Trump of course during Impeachment. It certainly would not have helped him.
We all would agree that if public opinion had turned on him enough, the votes of Republican Senators other than the Honorable Mitt Romney would have been different.
Well we will see how Republican Senators respond to Bolton’s book now.
As of late whenever Trump does something abhorrent like accuse a 75 year old Catholic volunteer of faking a head injury they run and hide like the cowards they are.
I expect nothing of them other than subservience to Trump.
If you do, good luck with that.
Good to hear from ya Z!