GOP House members reacted very differently to the riot than GOP senators. Why?
Several reasons:
- The Republicans gained seats in the House during the last election, but lost control of the Senate. GOP House members consequently are more likely to see Trumpism as a winning hand than senators.
- There are plenty of House districts that are uniformly bright red. The greatest danger to an incumbent in such districts is a primary challenger, not a Democrat in the general election. That is also true for some senators, but less so; there are pockets of urban blue in every state.
- Similarly, the cost of running an election in a rural district is relatively low. House members from those districts don’t need to worry about sucking up to RINO business interests for campaign contributions.
- The minority has some influence in the Senate as a result of the filibuster. The minority party in the House has no power (or responsibility) at all. Individual members of the House minority thus have every incentive to throw bombs in order to get attention; what do they have to lose?
- And, of course, McConnell and McCarthy are very different people. Only one of them plays the long game. Spoiler alert: it isn’t McCarthy.