Republican voters want team players
by Kelly Sadler · The Washington TimesOPINION:
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who voted to convict President Trump in his second impeachment hearing more than five years ago, lost his Republican primary Saturday. He came in third, not even qualifying for the runoff this summer.
Mr. Cassidy continually bucked Mr. Trump’s agenda throughout his decades-long career in Washington. He most recently clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccines and abortion medication after reluctantly voting to confirm him.
“I am a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases, and when I see outbreaks numbered in the thousands, and people dying once more from vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly children, it seems more than tragic,” Mr. Cassidy told Mr. Kennedy in a committee hearing last month.
He was dismayed by Mr. Kennedy’s alteration of the childhood vaccination schedule, which reduced the number of recommended diseases against which children should be vaccinated from 18 to 11. Whether Mr. Cassidy likes it or not, the Make America Healthy Again movement is what brought Mr. Kennedy to his position, and the overvaccination of children is a top concern for many MAHA voters.
Mr. Cassidy’s opposition to the MAHA movement made him a hero on the political left, which used his TV appearances and social media swipes to undermine Mr. Trump’s agenda. His disloyal vote to impeach Mr. Trump in his first term compounded Republican voters’ frustrations. Mr. Trump endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow in the primary, and she proved victorious with 45% of the vote.
After Mr. Trump helped oust several Indiana lawmakers this year because of their resistance to passing redistricting measures that would help Republicans, many are marveling at the president’s power within the party.
Another way to look at it, however, is a revolt from within.
Republican voters are tired of losing. They elected Mr. Trump in 2016 because the political class failed them, turning to an outsider for real disruption. Mr. Trump’s victory in 2024 was largely, in essence, because he is a no-holds-barred fighter. Republican voters want a closed border, law and order, lower taxes, a smaller government and peace through strength. Mr. Trump promised to deliver it for them.
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Rank-and-file Republicans understand that the Democratic Party will do anything to seize and hold power, and they also understand the need to fight fire with fire. To accomplish their policy agenda, “Washington norms” or, as the lawmakers in Indiana found out, “Indiana nice” will not cut it.
Like it or not, we live in a world of heightened political polarization, where it is all or nothing. They want a party unified around policy goals, with the ruthlessness to accomplish them. This includes ending the filibuster, redistricting and passing bills that align with the president’s agenda.
Still, many elected Republicans do not seem to get it.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is one of them. Mr. Massie’s base of anti-war leftists, anti-Israel activists, libertarians, online activists and Epstein-file conspiracists is not made up of rank-and-file Republicans. Mr. Massie voted against Mr. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which delivered tax cuts to working-class families.
He drove the release of the Epstein files and insinuated for months that Mr. Trump was either a pedophile or perfectly fine with pedophilia.
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Therefore, Mr. Massie became useful to the left. Code Pink, Rep. Ro Khanna, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Hasan Piker, Mother Jones, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have all given Mr. Massie glowing endorsements before his primary.
These advocates, however, won’t win over Kentucky Republicans, who just want a reliable right-wing vote in Congress. Mr. Massie’s libertarianism was tolerated as a quirk that ultimately would not obstruct right-wing ends. His eccentricity has moved to sabotage.
Many observers of these party expulsions assume it is Mr. Trump’s control over the base. They are wrong. It is Republican voters controlling their elected officials.
They want warriors who work as a team and representatives who work on behalf of their interests, not their own.
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Washington is changing not because of Mr. Trump, but because of Republican voters.
Mr. Trump’s policy proposals and fight mentality identify best with this base. It would be wise for other elected Republicans to take notice.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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