The 2021 House impeachment vote of former President Donald Trump was one of the most career-wrecking votes in congressional history, as 80 percent of the pro-impeachment members will exit Congress in 2023.
With Rep. Cheney’s (R-WY) massive loss Tuesday evening in Wyoming, a mere two of the ten pro-impeachment Republicans remain in the House. Only Reps. David Valadao (R-CA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) remain. Newhouse hails from a safer red district, while Valadao is running for reelection in a more contested district, where Trump did not endorse anyone in the primary.
Four pro-impeachment Republicans opted to retire and not compete in a GOP primary, which includes Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Fred Upton (R-MI), and John Katko (R-NY). Another four pro-impeachment members lost their GOP primary: Reps. Peter Meijer (R-MI), Tom Rice (R-SC), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), and Cheney.
With all pro-impeachment House primaries completed, attention will now turn to the Senate, where seven GOP senators voted to impeach Trump: Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Of those seven senators, two are retiring. Only one is running for reelection this year – Murkowski.
Murkowski, who has been in office for 21 years, is in a desperate fight for her political career. On Tuesday’s Alaskan GOP primary, she only finished about 3 percent ahead of Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka. Both Murkowski and Tshibaka qualified in the primary to advance to the general election on November 8.
Murkowski was appointed to the position by her father, who served in the Senate from 1981 to 2002 and was the governor of Alaska from 2002 until 2006. “After 21 years in the Senate, in a seat she was appointed to by her father which she funds with dark money from outside our state, Lisa Murkowski cares more about her status with the Washington, D.C. insiders than she does about what the people here at home think,” Tshibaka said after the election results in a press release.
“We already know that Murkowski says one thing in Alaska and then does the complete opposite in D.C.,” Tshibaka added. “And we know that people on both sides of important issues – like abortion and the 2nd Amendment – can’t trust her because she’s always speaking out of both sides of her mouth.”
If Tshibaka defeats Murkowski in the general election, only six pro-impeachment Republican senators would likely remain in 2023: Cassidy, Collins, Romney, Sasse, Valadao, and Newhouse.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
