Yet another House Republican calls it quits as Donald Trump takes the party down with him
And then there were seven. Over the past two weeks, six House Republicans separately announced that they wouldn’t be seeking reelection. None of them were plagued by scandal. Most of them weren’t what would generally be considered retirement age. They were simply quitting, for reasons that are increasingly obvious. Now a seventh House Republican has joined them.
Republican Congressman Kenny Marchant is set to announce today that he’s retiring, according to reporting on Sunday night from the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin. This continues what’s becoming a clear trend: Republicans are walking away from the House rather than bothering to run for reelection in 2020 on the same ballot as the increasingly toxically unpopular Donald Trump.
Marchant’s retirement also helps to solidify the trend of House Republicans from Texas announcing their retirement, as four of the seven are now from the Lone Star State. Texas is becoming increasingly racially diverse, and is in danger of shifting from a red state to a blue state. Trump’s increasingly blatant racism, and the worsening blowback over it, only serve to further hurt the GOP’s chances in the state in 2020.
Meanwhile the Republican-controlled Senate has taken steps this past week to force Donald Trump to play by the rules when it comes to the Director of National Intelligence position. First the GOP Senate publicly nudged him toward withdrawing his nomination of John Ratcliffe for the job. Now the Senate is openly pushing him toward following the law when it comes to choosing his Acting DNI. It’s as if Republican Senators are suddenly afraid Trump is going to take them down with him – even as House Republicans are increasingly just quitting.
