House Republican moderates aren’t mourning after Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie — a frequent thorn in President Donald Trump’s side — lost his primary, and they say his defeat won’t make them any less likely to break with the White House.
Republican centrists insist the intraparty revenge campaign against Massie won’t stop them from speaking out, and potentially voting against, the president’s agenda — even ahead of midterm elections.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), a moderate who represents a swing district outside Philadelphia, told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday that he didn’t believe Massie’s loss would have a chilling effect on GOP dissent. Another frequent Trump foil, Fitzpatrick faced the wrath of the president on Wednesday, when Trump told reporters that he “likes voting against Trump. You know what happens with that? It doesn’t work out well.”
Fitzpatrick told reporters: “I don’t report to any person or party here.” Unlike Massie, Fitzpatrick made it through his primary this week without facing a Trump-backed challenger and has millions banked for his reelection campaign.
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“Watch my votes this week,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not going to chill any voting activity for me.”
Fitzpatrick has criticized the creation of a $1.776 billion Department of Justice fund to provide restitution to people who feel they have been politically targeted by the federal government. He also has yet to sign on to $220 million in federal funding for Trump’s controversial White House ballroom project.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska), a moderate who often criticizes Trump, said the president’s “threatening and bullying and yelling” might “work well in the primaries, but it’s not going to work well in November.”
“I doubt it’s going to work on Fitz,” said Bacon, who is not running for reelection this November. Trump had previously threatened to back a challenger to him.
Other moderates insist they aren’t flinching either. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York), who represents a purple district, told NOTUS on Wednesday that Massie “tried to make this whole election about Israel and Jews, and got smoked.”
“Massie chose to be adversarial, not only with the president but with the [House Republican] conference, his party, and the voters rejected him,” Lawler said.
Lawler predicted that Massie’s defeat was not a sign of simmering dissent, arguing the Kentuckian “has already been voting ‘no’ to begin with, and voting with Democrats on everything.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday brushed aside questions about whether Republicans must be in lockstep with Trump, or face the consequences. Johnson said he was supportive of lawmakers who “are not trying to carve out their own lane and do something counterproductive to the ‘America first’ agenda.”
“The president has the strongest endorsement in the history of politics … but we don’t demand loyalty to the president,” Johnson said. “What I demand as speaker of the House is loyalty to our core principles.”
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 ranking House Republican, told NOTUS that “the Trump agenda is the agenda of most Republicans in this country.”
“You vote against the wishes of your own constituents, then your constituents will find somebody better to go represent them,” Scalise said.
On Wednesday, Massie’s campaign posted on X: “I lost the election but we started a revolution. Keep the flame of LIBERTY burning my friends! I will continue to put People and Principles before Party. America First!”
It’s a sentiment that was echoed by Massie allies on Wednesday. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Indiana) told NOTUS: “You don’t win every battle, but the war for this republic has to be won.” Spartz, too, had already cleared her primary.
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