The Club’s main focus will be on defending the five freshman members of the group who are especially vulnerable: Reps. Eli Gru (R-Ariz.), Anna Pauline Luna (R-Fla.), Josh Brecheen (R-okla.), Andy Ogle (R-Tenn.) e Keith Self (R-Texas).
McIntosh wrote that the club would also closely monitor any primary challengers to the other 15 members, a group that includes some of Congress’s biggest shakers, such as Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Matthew Gaetz (R-Fla.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) e Andy Bigg (R-Ariz.). Representative. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who is considering running for the Senate, is also on the list.
McCarthy won the speakership after a historic and controversial 15 rounds of voting. He was forced to make a long list of concessions to win over his detractors.
The Club note looks set to scare all McCarthy allies plotting against those who voted against his candidacy as speaker. McIntosh noted that his group helped elect 17 of the 20 members and praised them for their work « to advance conservative priorities and establish more transparent and accountable lawmaking in the House during the president’s negotiations in January. »
So far, hardly any member of the group has attracted primary challengers who have managed to raise some serious cash.
But the main challenges came first for the Club, which agreed to back McCarthy’s speaker in exchange for a respite with its biggest super PAC. That group, the Congressional Leadership Fund, has vowed to refrain from spending on open primaries in deep-red districts, which it has only rarely done. And it already doesn’t spend against Republican incumbents.
In the memo, the Club also noted that it would also help the three members of the 20 who could be most at risk from Democrats in a general election: Boebert, Luna and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.). Boebert’s 2022 challenger Adam Frisch is racing again after nearly passing his last fall. He announced that he raised a whopping $2.6 million in the second quarter of this year.
