Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., has lost his re-election bid, a contest in which his role crafting a House Republican Obamacare repeal bill became a political liability.
MacArthur was defeated by Democratic challenger Andy Kim, the Associated Press reported. Kim is a national security expert and former diplomat who repeatedly criticized the incumbent over his role in the Obamacare repeal fight.
MacArthur, who has served in the House since 2015, authored a controversial Obamacare replacement compromise that proved to be a double-edged sword for House Republicans.
On the one hand, the compromise enabled conservatives in the Freedom Caucus to get on board with Obamacare repeal. The Freedom Caucus rejected an earlier version of the Obamacare repeal bill, called the American Health Care Act, because it did not touch pre-existing condition protections and other insurer regulations, which the group believes are among the biggest drivers of high premiums.
So MacArthur, a former leader of the centrist “Tuesday Group,” authored an amendment to the American Health Care Act that would have allowed states to ignore protections for pre-existing conditions. The compromise worked, and the Freedom Caucus backed the bill, which narrowly passed the House in 2017.
But the amendment opened up Republicans to scorching attacks from Democrats that they voted to strip protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
The bill never went anywhere in the Senate, which crafted its own Obamacare repeal proposal that failed to advance out of the chamber.
MacArthur also took heat for the Republican tax reform law that passed last year. It included a cap on deductions for state and local taxes, which hit some residents in high-tax states such as New Jersey.
