The once highly influential Freedom Caucus, which once dictated the direction of the GOP-controlled House, has become a shell of itself after mounting primary losses.
According to a report from Politico, brutal losses in conservative Wyoming were just the latest sign that the Freedom Caucus is nothing more than an “island of misfit toys” nobody wants, as GOP strategist Matthew Bartlett quipped.
Candidates backed by the Freedom Caucus and its allies suffered defeats in primaries across the country on Tuesday, continuing a string of setbacks for the group.
In Florida, Catalina Lauf lost a House GOP primary despite receiving support from President Donald Trump and funding from the Freedom Caucus Fund.
According to Politico, “Hours later, more than a dozen Wyoming Freedom Caucus candidates in the state’s legislature lost to moderates. The group’s chair, Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, lost to a moderate in the secretary of state race, as did Freedom Caucus candidates for state superintendent and treasurer.”
The losses followed recent defeats for Freedom Caucus-backed candidates, including Rep. Andy Ogles in Tennessee, Rep. Chip Roy in his Texas attorney general bid, and Rep. Ralph Norman’s third-place finish in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. The Freedom Caucus Fund had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting these candidates.
While the group has achieved some victories this cycle, the pattern indicates that the ultra-conservative caucus’s influence and standing with GOP voters is diminishing “as factions within the party compete for relevance.”
GOP strategist Matthew Bartlett attributed the group’s decline to its isolation within the party, telling Politico, “They became largely an island of misfit toys: problematic in their party, and not for reasons that are necessarily popular with the public. So you’ve seen diminished influence, and you’ve seen them losing seats, losing stature.”
Wyoming’s results were “especially notable given how conservative that state is. Just two years ago, Freedom Caucus-aligned members took control of the state legislature and the state and gave Trump the highest vote share of any state in the nation,” Politico’s Andrew Howard wrote.
Wyoming GOP state Rep. Andrew Byron, who ran unopposed Tuesday, characterized the results plainly: “It was a butt-whoopin. It was a huge statement by the Wyoming voters that shows that if you’re not willing to govern and listen to your constituents, they react.”
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