Another one of the 10 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/13/cheney-10-house-republicans-trump-impeachment-00050991″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>“slow-clap” brave House Republicans who voted for Donald Trump’s second annual impeachment is leaving Congress. The latest to fall is Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler from Washington’s third congressional district. The state has a non-partisan primary, and Herrera Beutler ultimately failed to make the top two positions.
Herrera Beutler, who entered the House during the 2010 Tea Party wave, will exit as part of the 2022 MAGA purge. (Whether Democrats will endure another “shellacking” this year https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=democratic+polling&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>remains to be seen.)
The soon-to-be former congresswoman ended election day solidly in second place, but her lead over Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent steadily decreased and soon vanished as the ballots were counted. If the situation were reversed, the MAGA crowd would’ve cried “fraud!” but there’s no use pointing out this obvious hypocrisy. The modern Republican party is consistent in its contempt for democracy.
From https://www.opb.org/article/2022/08/09/herrera-beutler-concedes-in-southwest-washington-us-house-primary/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Oregon Public Broadcasting:
“I’m proud of all we’ve accomplished together for the place where I was raised and still call home,” Herrera Beutler wrote in a statement. Her tenure in Washington D.C. ends Jan. 3.
Herrera Beutler didn’t just vote to impeach Trump for inciting an attack on the Capitol. She also was one of the shamefully small number of Republicans who voted to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Unlike certain pro-impeachment Republicans (looking at you, https://www.wonkette.com/-2657800798″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Peter Meijer), Herrera Beutler https://twitter.com/HerreraBeutler/status/1350208287413837829?s=20&t=JYwIgitsuHqOf5SkUKyFpw” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>didn’t run from her vote. She frequently and publicly explained basic democracy to her constituents.
Trump, as grotesque as ever, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-celebrates-pro-impeachment-republican-030520800.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>took a victory lap after Herrera Beutler conceded defeat:
“Joe Kent just won an incredible race against all odds in Washington State,” Trump said. “Importantly, he knocked out yet another impeacher, Jaime Herrera Beutler, who so stupidly played right into the hands of the Democrats.”
Herrera Beutler’s no RINO. She voted in line with Trump https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/jaime-herrera-beutler/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>almost 80 percent of time, making her more right-leaning than her actual district. She was hardly supportive of Biden’s agenda, either. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-congress-votes/jaime-herrera-beutler/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>She voted against gun safety legislation, abortion rights, and marriage equality. This wasn’t about policy, like when Oregon Democrats rejected https://www.wonkette.com/-2657504122″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Kurt Schrader. No, Republican voters rejected Herrera Beutler because she wasn’t sufficiently loyal to Trump, even when “loyalty” meant ignoring her oath of office.
Herrera Beutler lost despite a few MAGA candidates splitting the wackadoodle vote. They included Christian podcaster Heidi St. John, who https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/15/heidi-st-john-washington-state-far-right-republican-congress-third-district-donation/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>received $726,000 in July from the new super PAC Conservatives for a Stronger America. She ended with 16 percent of the vote. Republican https://vickikraft.houserepublicans.wa.gov” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>state Rep. Vicki Kraft, who actually holds elected office, managed just three percent of the vote. We assume she tried her best.
Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez finished first with 31 percent, but she had no real left-of-center competition. The small business owner is a Reed College graduate, which almost makes her Oregon liberal central casting. While Kent might present as the moderate Republican sibling to Perez’s crunchy Democrat, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/us/politics/joe-kent-house-trump.html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>he campaigned as a “Stop the Steal” (which didn’t happen) candidate. He insists that the 2020 election was rigged and claims, with zero evidence, that “Deep State provocateurs” infiltrated the otherwise peaceful Trump-loving crowd on January 6. Last September, he spoke at a rally in support of the January 6 insurrectionists he called “political prisoners.”
If Perez hopes to win, she’d need a substantial number of Herrera Beutler voters to support her in November. Herrera Beutler easily defeated Democrat Carolyn Long in 2020 by 13 percent. The district went from Romney in 2012 to Trump in 2016. The twice-impeached thug expanded his margin in 2020 against Biden, but he underperformed Herrera Beutler.
After Herrera Beutler conceded, https://youtu.be/X1866BQa2X4″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Perez said it was time for the “middle” to come together. The question now is if there’s enough “middle” in the district to defeat Kent or will the Republican House caucus gain yet another member with no principles or respect for the Constitution. Cook Political shifted the race from solid to lean Republican. Let’s hope the pro-democracy candidate can manage an upset.
[https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/washington-house/herrera-beutler-loss-moves-wa-03-solid-lean-republican” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Cook Political / https://www.opb.org/article/2022/08/09/herrera-beutler-concedes-in-southwest-washington-us-house-primary/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>OPB]Follow Stephen Robinson on https://twitter.com/SER1897″ rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Twitter.
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