Analysis | Mace, Timmons survive primary challenges (2024)

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) defeated a primary challenger last night who had pledged to join the House Freedom Caucus, dealing a blow to the hard-right group’s efforts to expand its ranks.

More than a thousand miles away, North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak easily beat another Republican who said he would join the Freedom Caucus, Rick Becker, in the race for the seat Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R) gave up to run for governor.

The results are the latest repudiation of hard-right candidates in GOP primaries this year, after Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) and Mike Bost (R-Ill.) narrowly beat challengers to their right.

Timmons’s and Fedorchak’s victories are also a less than encouraging sign for Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the Freedom Caucus chairman who is facing a tough primary of his own next week.

Good and several other Freedom Caucus members had endorsed state Rep. Adam Morgan — who lost to Timmons 52 percent to 48 percent — and Becker. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who isn’t a member of the caucus but is often aligned with it, also backed them.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) also easily survived her primary, defeating two challengers.

She was the first of the eight Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership to face a primary challenger. (One of the others, Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), resigned in March, and another, Rep. Matt Rosendale (Mont.), isn’t running for reelection.)

Mace said before the results came in that she wanted her victory to embarrass McCarthy.

Mace, Timmons and Fedorchak all had former president Donald Trump’s endorsem*nt.

Good, who also voted to remove McCarthy as speaker, does not. Trump endorsed Good’s primary rival, state Sen. John McGuire, who also has the backing of several of his House colleagues.

Here are a few more notable election results:

Sam Brown, the Army veteran backed by Trump and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (R-Mont.), easily defeated Jeff Gunter, Trump’s former ambassador to Iceland. Brown led Gunter early Wednesday, 60 percent to 15 percent, with nearly 90 percent of votes counted.

Brown will face Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in November in one of the seven races that Republicans and Democrats expect to determine control of the chamber.

Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli won the special election to fill the seat left vacant by Republican Rep. Bill Johnson’s resignation in January — but the race was surprisingly close.

Rulli beat Democrat Michael Kripchak — who on May 22 had raised less than $23,000 for his campaign — 55 percent to 45 percent. Trump won the district by 29 points in 2020.

North Dakotans voted 61 percent to 39 percent to approve a constitutional amendment that will impose an age limit on who can run for Congress. The amendment bars anyone who would be 81 or older by the end of their term from running.

House Republicans are preparing to vote as soon as today on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over an audio recording of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Biden.

The push comes as many Republicans seethe over Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts last month for his role in paying hush money ahead of the 2016 election to an adult-film actress who says she had sex with him while he was married. Republicans continued those attacks yesterday even after a jury convicted Biden’s son Hunter Biden of lying to buy a gun in 2018 and illegally owning it.

But House Republicans’ standoff with Garland isn’t tied to Trump’s conviction, which Garland had nothing to do with.

Instead, it’s over Garland’s refusal to turn over the recording of Hur’s interview with Biden during his investigation into why Biden failed to return classified documents from his time as vice president. The Justice Department made a transcript of the interview public, but Biden asserted executive privilege at Garland’s request to block the release of the recording.

White House counsel Ed Siskel accused Republicans of seeking the recordings “to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes.” The transcript makes clear that Biden’s memory failed him at several points during the interview.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose panel recommended holding Garland in contempt, told reporters he thought Republicans had the votes to do it.

“We think they waived [executive] privilege when they gave us the transcript,” Jordan said. “It’s tough to say, ‘Oh, we [gave you] the transcript, but we don’t want to the give the audio tape.’”

But some Republicans have expressed reservations.

Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) said he thought House Republicans had better things to do.

“He’s basically complied with the request,” Joyce said, referring to Garland. “He’s given a complete transcript. And my understanding from a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch is the transcript has been matched to the tapes and has been found to be in compliance. I’m not sure what the issue is.”

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent who represents a swing district, said he was undecided on how he would vote and was seeking more information before making up his mind.

Garland denounced the effort when he testified last week before the Judiciary Committee, describing it as “only the most recent in a long line of attacks on the Justice Department’s work.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, echoed the White House’s contention that Republicans are looking to embarrass Biden.

Republicans are hunting “for a verbal mistake like a mispronounced name that they can turn into a political TV attack ad in the presidential campaign,” Raskin told the House Rules Committee.

Garland would not be the first attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress.

But even if Republicans muster the votes to hold Garland in contempt, there’s no easy path to securing the recording of Biden’s interview — especially in the next few months.

It’s up to the Justice Department whether to prosecute contempt cases, making it unlikely that Garland would be charged with a crime. Neither Barr nor Holder was prosecuted.

“There’s not any real way to enforce this,” said Stanley Brand, a former House general counsel.

House Republicans are also planning to sue to seek the recording, Jordan said — but the court battle would probably take years and would require Republicans to retain control of the House.

“There’s a very serious question whether the Supreme Court would hold that the House has standing to sue and that the House has a cause of action,” said Douglas Letter, who was the House general counsel when Democrats sued to obtain documents from Barr.

Thanks to our fab colleague Marianna Sotomayor for her reporting help.

Donald Trump’s stance that abortion should be regulated at the state level has led to debate in the Republican Party about whether its platform should change to follow suit, our colleague Michael Sherer reports.

The GOP did not produce a new platform in 2020, and when one was last written in 2016, the Republican Party called for a federal abortion ban after 20 weeks of gestation as well as a constitutional amendment to give fetuses legal protections.

As Trump’s campaign has moved to fill the platform committee with their own preferred candidates, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s personal views are likely to shape the committee’s policy choices. Many social conservatives, including Trump’s former running mate Mike Pence, are reportedly opposed to the idea of removing or changing the 2016 platform’s abortion language.

Randy Evans, the executive director of the 2024 platform committee, pushed back sharply against those concerned about the future of the GOP’s abortion stance.

Biden is leaving this morning for Italy, where he’ll attend what could be his final G-7 summit.

Biden “will encounter nervous allies, who are closely following his rematch with Trump and are worried that Biden’s vow that ‘America is back’ will no longer ring true when they gather again next year in Canada,” our colleagues Tyler Pager, Anthony Faiola and Matt Viser write.

We’re watching the new Consumer Price Index data set to be released at 8:30 a.m., which will indicate whether inflation is rising or falling less than five months before Election Day.

Hunter Biden’s trial was nominally focused on the illegal firearm possession charges of which he was convicted, but it also provided a dramatic, behind-the-scenes look at life in the Biden family.

Hunter Biden’s drug addiction, infidelity and neglect of his family were dissected in great detail, clearly straining the Biden family present at the trial. Not present was President Biden, who reportedly stayed in touch with his son even while keeping his distance from the trial to avoid the appearance of influencing the justice system.

Must reads

From The Post:

From across the web:

Hype yourself up for the game with a little Jay-Z