Voices: The Republican Party has given up on governing

On Tuesday evening firebrand Representative Lauren Boebert unsurprisingly beat back her Republican primary challenger, state Senator Don Coram, in Colorado’s 3rd district. Mr Coram had run on the fact that Ms Boebert, who has earned a reputation for inflammatory remarks, was ineffective.

“I have been critical of the opponent’s record and I’d liken it to a new Denver football player, in that she throws a lot of passes but has zero completions”, he said in their debate last month, according to Colorado Newsline. “Who would be happy with that?”

In response, Ms Boebert criticized his work with Democrats in Colorado’s state legislature and said he voted for a “Department of Illegal Immigration,” because he supported to create the Colorado Office of New Americans, which he defended by saying undocumented immigrants had a right to go to school and health care, which was met with boos.

In the end, voters in the 3rd district won. But it’s further indication that in many races, Republicans have shown little interest in sending election officials to Washington who actually know how to govern.

The same night as Ms Boebert’s victory, Representative Mary Miller–who was in the headlines this weekend for saying that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade was a victory for “white life”–beat Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois.

Mr Davis is a ranking member of the House Administration Committee and prior to that worked for Ms Miller’s predecessor, John Shimkus, who authored legislation to make 911 the universal emergency number for mobile phones as well as landlines.

Had Mr Davis won and Republicans gained the majority in November, he would have become the Administration Committee’s chairman. But Illinois Republicans have shown they, much like their counterparts in other states, are uninterested in actually understanding the levers of power and how to pass legislation.

A similar dynamic was in play in West Virginia when Republican Representative Alex Mooney, who is facing an investigation from the House Ethics Committee, beat Representative David McKinley, largely on the back of Mr Trump’s endorsement. Mr McKinley largely faced former president Donald Trump’s wrath after he voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

A vote for the infrastructure bill also earned Representative Fred Upton, one of the longest-serving Republicans in the House, death threats. Mr Upton is a former chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, by far one of the most powerful bodies in the House, but his insufficient loyalty to Mr Trump (whom he voted to impeach) would have meant a tough primary and said the threats made bipartisan votes “frightening.”

The trend isn’t just isolated to the House though. In North Carolina, Mr Trump has endorsed Representative Ted Budd to replace retiring Senator Richard Burr, who helped negotiate the gun bill and served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and led its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

By contrast, Mr Budd beat out former Governor Pat McCrory and last year, was part of a group of Republicans who said he couldn’t vote in-person because of the Covid-19 pandemic, only to high-tail it down to Florida for the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The same can be said in Ohio, where firebrand candidate JD Vance, who has no experience in government, is running to replace Senator Rob Portman–who negotiated the bipartisan infrastructure bill–and in Missouri, former governor Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace after allegedly sexually blackmailing a woman, is running to replace Senator Roy Blunt, a consummate dealmaker who along with Mr Portman, helped negotiate the gun bill that passed last week. Last week, Mr Greitens caused a stir when he posted an ad of himself with a rifle hunting “RINOs”.

There are some exceptions; Representative Madison Cawthorn lost his primary last month and Senator Richard Shelby, a former chairman of the Senate appropriations committee known for bringing projects back home, saw his former chief of staff Katie Boyd Britt win her primary. But those were extraordinary circumstances; the whole North Carolina establishment turned on Mr Cawthorn and Mr Trump switched his endorsement from Representative Mo Brooks.

Nowadays, the top priorities for Republicans are no longer governing and passing legislation but fealty to Mr Trump and “owning the libs.” Republicans could likely win back a majority in both chambers–which would stymie any of Joe Biden’s agenda–but a lack of institutional knowledge could make it harder for the next president to pass legislation.