Sen. Tom Cotton provided an early boost to his 2024 presidential aspirations when he sparked a staff insurrection inside the New York Times, surely to the enjoyment of Republican primary voters.
In causing humiliation and upheaval for the New York Times, Cotton perhaps did more to burnish his political ambitions than any legislative achievement he might claim over seven-and-a-half years in Congress.
“More than just about anything in this world, Republicans want leaders who will stick it to the media and drive them crazy,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist in Louisville, Kentucky. “Trump had this going for him in 2016, and Cotton has certainly done it to the New York Times, the liberal mothership to the average Republican.”
Last week, Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, published an op-ed with the New York Times urging President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell riots that erupted in some American cities after some governors and mayors resisted the assistance of the National Guard. The riots began after George Floyd, a black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Trump would hardly have been the first president to deploy troops to subdue violence in American cities. The reaction of the New York Times caught the attention of the Republican base and caused the senator’s average monthly fundraising tally to spike threefold so far this month.
After publication, newsroom staff circulated a petition, widely supported internally, opposing the op-ed and criticizing it as beyond acceptable, mainstream thought, despite poll numbers showing widespread support for using troops to quell violent protests. James Bennet resigned under pressure as editorial pages editor, and the New York Times top brass posted a lengthy apology. Cotton chose to run his piece in the New York Times because he presumed it was the surest path to causing an uproar on the Left.
“I knew it would generate controversy,” he told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “But I was surprised at the size and fury of the child mob at the New York Times.”
Cotton, 43, is a key Trump ally on Capitol Hill.
The first-term senator has consistently supported the president on China, Iran, trade, and immigration, parting ways occasionally — such as on criminal justice reform and North Korea. The stoic, disciplined Army combat veteran and Harvard Law School graduate usually delivers that support via crisp Senate floor speeches and pithy newspaper op-eds — a habit dating back at least 14 years to an unpublished letter to the editor of the New York Times he penned while serving in Iraq.
Cotton’s dust-up with the New York Times channeled the aspect of Trump that has cultivated such a loyal following among grassroots Republicans. The president is beloved because he fights without reservation or hesitation, an exercise many GOP voters find cathartic and exhilarating because they believe it exposes hypocrisy, dishonesty, and intolerance among Democrats and their allies in media and cultural institutions. Cotton is being directly compared to the president.
“Kicking the media’s ass is almost as important as kicking a Democrat’s ass for your average Republican activist,” Jennings said. “Cotton gets this and is executing effectively.”
The moment is reminiscent of the time in March 2015 when Cotton organized a letter from 47 Republican senators to Iran’s leaders noting that the nuclear deal Barack Obama was negotiating with them could be undone by a future president.
To maximize his current windfall and continue laying a foundation for a possible future presidential run, Cotton is planning a robust calendar of political activity through Election Day.
His political action committee, the Republican Majority Fund, has raised approximately $200,000 this month, compared to the usual $40,000 to $50,000, aides say. The senator is investing the cash in television and digital advertising in battleground states that beat up on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Cotton has headlined Zoom fundraisers for five GOP Senate incumbents and challengers, with another appearance on tap this month for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
To supplement these relationship-building efforts inside the party, Cotton is moving to boost his name identification with voters by functioning as a spokesman in local media markets for Republicans running in targeted Senate races. A China hawk who sits on the Intelligence Committee, Cotton is likely to be deployed by colleagues to criticize Democratic challengers over their position on Beijing, likely a key issue in the fall.
“I’m going to do what I can to support the president’s reelection — and support other Republican senators’ reelection as well,” Cotton said.
Cotton is up for reelection this year but faces no Democratic opposition.
