A top House conservative is blaming the GOP leadership for working to defeat Rep. Tim Huelskamp in the Kansas Republican primary.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said the GOP establishment worked to defeat Huelskamp because they wanted to “exact their revenge” on him for fighting against the House leadership in order to force them to adhere to a more conservative agenda.
Huelskamp, who was elected in 2010, lost the Tuesday primary to Republican challenger Roger Marshall, an obstetrician and gynecologist.
Marshall had the backing of the Republican establishment as well as the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce.
Huelskamp, elected with the backing of the Tea Party, was often a vocal thorn in the sides of House GOP leaders, who punished him by stripping his committee assignments, including his spot on the House Committee on Agriculture, a critical assignment for Kansas House lawmakers.
Huelskamp joined other House conservatives in the push to defund Obamacare in 2013, which resulted in a 16-day government shutdown and a temporary drop in the polls for the GOP.
“At times, Tim’s commitment to fighting for smaller, more accountable government required him to stand up and say no to ‘business as usual’ in Washington,” Jordan said in a statement. “For this, he was punished by the same party insiders and special interests that Republican voters across the country overwhelmingly rejected at the ballot box throughout the presidential nomination process.”
Jordan called the primary campaign “ugly and dishonest” and said Huelskamp’s record “was attacked and misrepresented by big money special interest groups who wanted to exact their revenge.”
