Trump wants revenge against Republicans over impeachment. Is Rep. Newhouse in trouble?
Former President Donald Trump is out to settle scores with the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him. And that could mean trouble for Rep. Dan Newhouse.
Newhouse, a Washington Republican, was one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after a mob of Trump’s supporters overran the U.S. Capitol in January. That infuriates many Republicans all over the central Washington district.
Clint Didier, Franklin County Republican chairman, said he has talked to people from “Trump’s group,” and finds a lot of people in his county are angry about Newhouse’s vote.
“The grass roots are coming alive,” said Didier, whom Newhouse defeated in a 2016 election for the congressional seat.
Trump’s advisers have been meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to discuss 2022 strategy, and they said that Newhouse’s race is on their radar. It will take some time to vet Newhouse’s challengers, though, said two people familiar with the conversations who asked not to be identified.
Newhouse, who has held the seat since 2015, already has three Republican challengers. The congressman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
His rivals were eager to embrace Trump.
“Newhouse has failed to represent our district by voting to impeach President Trump under faulty pretenses, it’s no surprise he is supporting others that did the same,” said Woodrow Johnson, campaign spokesman for state Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick.
Businessman Jerrod Sessler’s campaign said in a statement to the Tri-City Herald that their sense was that Trump will have a significant impact on the race.
“That said, our team and consultants are running full throttle knowing that the endorsement will likely follow a successful early campaign,” the campaign said.
Although former Republic Police Chief Loren Culp did not respond to a request for comment, when he announced his candidacy in a 35-minute speech at the Clover Island Inn last month, he told supporters, “Newhouse voted with the socialists to impeach one of the greatest presidents of my lifetime.”
The GOP’s impeachment 10
Ten Republicans, including Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Battle Ground, backed impeaching Trump in January, while 197 Republicans voted no. Herrera Beutler could also become a Trump target.
The former president is still barred from major social media platforms, but he has continued to criticize his political opponents in statements distributed by his Save America political action committee and in interviews. Trump could also direct financial resources to challengers of the Washington Republicans through his PAC although he has not done so yet.
Trump is taking his time with the races that will not be on the ballot until November of next year. He has mainly endorsed incumbent lawmakers who voted against impeaching him.
Support for an opponent of Newhouse or Herrera Beutler will depend on the challenger’s fundraising, message and ability to stay in the news, the people familiar with the process said. How much money the current seatholders raise, and how quickly, will also play a role in when and where Trump makes endorsements in the midterm elections, they added.
Newhouse’s challenge
Newhouse’s district runs from Benton County to Okanogan County and the Canadian border. He won re-election last year with 66% of the vote. Trump won the district by 19 points.
When he voted to impeach Trump in January, Newhouse explained “a vote against this impeachment is a vote to validate the unacceptable violence we witnessed in our nation’s capital.”
Local Republicans were furious.
Shortly after the vote, six Washington GOP county chairs, including Didier, called for Newhouse to resign. They sent him a letter saying, “Your defense of your impeachment vote is not adequate for the charge. It is impossible to defend the indefensible.
“You have promoted your own personal agenda, with complete disregard to the citizens who elected you in the Fourth Congressional District of Washington,” they said.
Newhouse did not resign. On March 1, his New Energy in Washington House PAC gave $1,000 each to campaigns of colleagues who voted to impeach: Fred Upton and Peter Meijer of Michigan, Tom Rice of South Carolina, John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, David Valadao of California and Herrera Beutler.
The impeachment 10 are helping each other. Newhouse plans to host Valadao at a Washington state fundraiser next month. Cheney’s Cowboy PAC gave $5,000 to each of the other nine Republicans. Cheney, R-Wyoming, who has been relentlessly criticizing Trump, was ousted by her GOP colleagues from a party leadership position on Wednesday.
Trump and his advisers are watching.
Senior adviser Jason Miller criticized the effort by House lawmakers who voted for impeachment to financially support each other’s reelection efforts.
“They’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Nothing they do at this point will bring them back to Congress,” Miller said.
Trump and his allies are confident that they can replace Newhouse with a Republican who will be loyal to the former president without risking the seat falling into Democratic hands.
“This is a pretty conservative district,” Didier said.
They also think they can put a Trump supporter in the western Washington district that Herrera Beutler has represented since 2011.
The Republican Accountability Project, a group that is financially backing Republicans who voted for impeachment, said it would help Newhouse and Herrera Beutler. It plans to form a political action committee that will also direct resources to pro-impeachment Republicans, the group’s executive director Sarah Longwell said.
“Our plan is to go toe-to-toe with them on spending to protect these candidates that they’ve got their knives out for,” she said of Trump’s operation.
Longwell said that how much the group spends on each race will depend on how competitive their primaries are while vowing that the group would fight hard to protect Republicans who voted for impeachment if they find themselves in difficult primaries, especially Herrera Beutler.
Herrera Beutler “has been a uniquely positive force on the GOP over the last several years, and it’s extremely important to protect her from a MAGA primary that would be retributional,” Longwell added. “She would get a disproportionate amount of resources for that fight.”
“We would basically try to do whatever we thought it would take for her to win,” Longwell said.
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Trump wants revenge against Republicans over impeachment. Is Rep. Newhouse in trouble?."
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