Elections (Both Primary and General) Have Consequences
As primaries and special elections occur from February to September, the SCR Facebook Page has posted and will continue to post endorsements and reminders to vote for multiple candidates: Thomas Massie (KY-4), Susan Wagle (KS-SEN), Mike Garcia (CA-25 special), Tom Tiffany (WI-7 special), Jeff Sessions (AL-SEN), Darrell Issa (CA-50), Chip Roy (TX-21), and many others. Sometimes, we receive comments asking why we endorse candidates from all over America and why we put so much effort into candidate endorsements. Put simply, elections have consequences: a leftist landslide in 2008 kicked off eight years of Barack Obama’s authoritarian rule, Tea Party landslides in 2010 and 2014 returned the Senate and the House, respectively (not to mention many state houses and governors’ mansions) to Republican control. Also, despite the ever-growing presidency, federal legislative and state-level elections control the lion’s share of government power: thus, while we should care deeply about re-electing President Trump and obliterating Joe Biden, we should be just as worried about down-ballot races. In primaries, the GOP establishment tries to cut off conservatives at the knees: most recently, RINOs like Liz Cheney and Mike Turner backed Todd McMurtry against Thomas Massie in the KY-4 primary (until racially-charged Tweets forced most of them to back out); looking back, Chris Putnam in TX-10 was brutally beaten back when he dared to challenge powerful RINO Kay Granger in March, and even way back in 2016, House Freedom Caucus member Tim Huelskamp was removed from the Agriculture Committee and then primaried by RINO Roger Marshall because he dared to stand up to the Republican establishment. Fortunately, we can win: the whole House Freedom Caucus (including new members like the aforementioned Chip Roy) were elected through the primary process when conservatives united to make it happen, as were Governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Alaska’s Mike Dunleavy and Senators like Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Cruz, DeSantis, and Roy, too, in increasingly competitive jurisdictions, prove that we can win general elections in tough territory if we donate money, volunteer, and, above all, vote for conservatives when they run.
If you aren’t registered to vote, change that ASAP, and if you have an upcoming primary, make sure to do your research and vote in it: our republic only listens to those citizens who actually vote for its leaders, so we conservatives must do our part.
Philip Eykamp
Parliamentarian