Earlier this week, Sophie wrote about the build up to the vote to oust Liz Cheney from her spot as GOP Conference Chair. As expected, Cheney was voted out of her position as the No. 3 Republican leader in the House today, May 12th. In the same conference letter that House Minority leader called for another vote on Representative Cheney's leadership position, he called for focus on the 2022 midterms and claimed "we are a big tent party." The irony of this is that the big tent doesn't allow for criticism of the lies told by former president Donald Trump. Time will tell if the Republican party not only refusing to distance from Trump, but also ousting those who do want to distance from Trump, will end up to alienating moderate and independent voters who are not part of the core Trump base.
Cheney has a 82% conservative voting score from the Heritage Action for America, a conservative advocacy group. Representative Elise Stefanik, her expected replacement, has a session score of 56% and lifetime score of 48% from the same group. It is worth noting that Stefanik is facing criticism for not being conservative enough, and her confirmation to the position that Cheney lost has yet to be confirmed. The ousting of a member who is more conservative than her potential replacement demonstrates the hold that Trump has on the Republican party, for loyalty to Trump is now a more important factor for Republican leadership than conservative policy stances. It is also notable that the vote to remove Cheney from leadership was not recorded, likely because McCarthy wanted to protect the Republicans from being critiqued on their vote one way or the other. McCarthy voiced that he is focused on unity of the party against Biden and Democrats going into 2022, so he also likely didn't want focus on the internal division. As Cheney mentioned, this is a defining moment for the Republican party. The 2022 midterms will reveal if this strategy pays off, though as we have discussed, conservative areas are gaining House seats and the opposing party has a major advantage in midterms. So if Republicans don't win, it will be a serious rebuke by voters.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/12/us/liz-cheney-biden/liz-cheney-ousted-voted-out
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/10/politics/mccarthy-house-conference-letter/index.html
https://heritageaction.com/scorecard/members/C001109/116
https://heritageaction.com/scorecard/members/S001196/116
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