House Republicans want to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her position as chairwoman of the caucus and replace her with Rep. Elise Stefanik, a younger, much more Trump-friendly Republican. The irony is that Stefanik’s voting record doesn’t even line up with the “America First” agenda Trump Republicans claim to care about.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Stefanik this week, calling her a “far superior choice” to the “warmongering” Cheney. Apparently, Trump believes Stefanik prioritizes “the values of America First.” What those values are, he probably couldn’t even say. But to the typical Trump voter, “America First” means a few things: protecting American workers via immigration policy, keeping Americans out of unnecessary foreign conflicts, and fighting for conservative causes at home on the culture war front.
Stefanik doesn’t line up with any of these policies. She voted against Trump’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and even earned the praise of John Bolton back in 2017. She opposed Trump’s 2017 tax cut package and happily supported extensions of the Export-Import Bank. She voted to reenter the Paris climate accord and end the border emergency declaration that had allowed Trump to begin construction of the southern border wall. And she voted for the Equality Act, a radical piece of legislation that would force religious people to bow down to the Left’s gender ideology or face legal consequences.
Stefanik opposed Trump’s agenda more often than most House Republicans, including Cheney. In fact, Cheney voted alongside Trump 92.9% of the time, whereas Stefanik voted with him only 77.7% of the time. But Stefanik passed the one litmus test that matters: She’s personally loyal to Trump.
This is the exact problem Cheney has been warning her fellow Republicans about. If the party is driven more by personality than policy, it will lose voters and power because it will have nothing of substance to give to the base. The GOP needs to choose: Pursue policies that appeal to a wide range of voters or cater to the whims of a man who isn’t even in office and likely won’t be again.
Republicans can’t have it both ways — Trump has made sure of that.
