Politico | How Donald Trump is reshaping Congress from the ground up
- Long-time Republican lawmakers are retiring in safe seats, and president’s hardcore acolytes are taking their place
- These include White House doctor who praised Trump’s ‘great genes’ and a QAnon conspiracy theorist hailed by president as party’s new star
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Ally Mutnick on politico.com on August 19, 2020.
Whether he wins re-election or not, US President Donald Trump is remaking the Republican Party for years to come, as candidates ride to Congress by studiously observing the new first commandment of Republican primaries: the Trumpiest person wins.
Dozens of safe-seat Republican veterans are retiring in 2020, some of whom have only grudgingly acceded to Trump’s takeover. But their replacements are running as hardcore Trump acolytes with no such misgivings about the president.
Among those set to join next year’s class of House Republican freshmen are the former White House doctor known for his glowing praise of the president’s “great genes”; an Alabama state legislator who claims to have been the first elected official in the country to endorse Trump; and a QAnon conspiracy theorist from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who first gained popularity on the MAGA internet and was deemed a new “Republican star” by Trump.
Added up district by district, the phenomenon is creating a vastly different Republican Party than the one that nominated Trump in 2016, four years after elevating Mitt Romney to the presidential race – as evidenced by the fact that “Romney Republican” has become an epithet across numerous 2020 Republican primaries.
The House GOP Conference is set to be smaller but Trumpier next year, tightening the president’s hold on the top ranks of the party.
