Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers in 2013 sunk a bill — which had majority support in the House — to ban late-term abortion. In 2015 she signed the discharge petition to revive the defunct corporate-welfare agency called the Export-Import Bank. While her Chamber of Commerce score was 90 percent, her Club for Growth score was 57 percent.
While this record earned Ellmers the love of K Street groups, some of which spent money to prop her up, it also earned her the ire of conservative groups — of both the fiscal and social stripe. The Club spent more than $750,000 against her. Americans for Prosperity spent more than $200,000. The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List spent five figures against her and knocked on more than 12,000 doors. SBA folks point out recent polls showing:
37.8% of Ellmers’s own supporters said they were less likely to vote for her knowing her role in derailing the Pain-Capable bill.
67.3% of undecided pro-life primary voters were less likely to vote for Ellmers knowing her role in derailing the Pain-Capable bill.
The very first Republican congressional candidate Donald Trump endorsed this year was Renee Ellmers, who praised Trump as a real leader who listens to the people.
Today, Ellmers lost her primary — badly.
I remember when bucking the conservative base for the sake of the business lobby meant you got more money. But these days there is anti-corporate-welfare money (the club and AFP), and increasingly pro-life electoral muscle (like SBA). A result: Renee Ellmers just lost her House seat.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
