Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Tuesday that GOP lawmakers would pursue an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.
McCarthy appeared to concede pressure from his right, such as was applied from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who openly talked about the speaker failing to abide by the deal with conservatives that gave him the gavel in January.
But McCarthy’s toughest task may lie ahead: trying to hold the Republicans together in what will surely be a relentless attack by Democrats and the media on their process in defense of Biden.
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That’s because a new study indicates that Republicans are far quicker to abandon their principles than Democrats when the going gets tough.
The Daily Wire recently reported on the study by the Conservative Political Action Conference, which studied votes by 7,400 state lawmakers nationwide in 2022.
The group found that GOP lawmakers supported conservative causes 77% of the time.
In contrast, Democrats were much more unified in pushing a left-wing agenda, voting together 87% of the time.
“Republicans run on conservative promises, but after they win more of them abandon the tough votes on key conservative policies when compared to Democrats whose first rule is to stick together,” the CPAC’s report said, according to The Daily Wire.
“Our analysis shows how moderate Republicans broke apart on key issues like parental choice in education, securing strong voter ID, or putting a stop to COVID mandates.”
The effect of that is to actually undermine the voters who elected those Republicans.
CPAC’s findings seemed surprising when considering states with the “most liberal” Republican lawmakers.
While as might be expected the GOP posted worse numbers in states dominated by Democrats, such as Hawaii and Connecticut, the fraying occurred in hardcore conservative strongholds.
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The analysis found that places like Mississippi, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Idaho were at the bottom of the “most conservative” list.
In Mississippi, for example, Republicans held together for just 58% of the votes.
Comparatively, Florida Republicans were among the most cohesive, uniting on 89% of their votes.
Florida actually tied for sixth with Maine, Colorado and North Carolina as the “most conservative” when it came to GOP lawmakers banding together most strongly.
Ahead of the Sunshine State were Wisconsin (94%), Michigan (93%), New Hampshire (92%), California (91%) and Iowa (90%).
As for McCarthy, as the Tampa Free Press reported this week, GOP Reps. Ken Buck and Nancy Mace has already questioned whether pursuing Biden on corruption charges is worth it.
Republicans right now hold a 222-212 advantage in the House, meaning McCarthy faces dire consequences on the impeachment front if just six Republicans tilt left and for Biden.
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