OPINION:
While most media focus obsessively on the Trump-Harris battle — who’s calling whom “weird” or who’s falling out of coconut trees — the downballot races this year are so far showing an encouraging trend. Voters from both parties are using their power in congressional primaries to weed out some of the extreme candidates from their ranks. They’re refusing to send members of Congress back to Washington who prioritize their own grandstanding and fire-breathing over their duties to constituents.
Democratic primary voters recently sent two far-left House Democrats packing. First, New Yorkers rejected Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Then Missourians gave a pink slip to Rep. Cori Bush. Mr. Bowman and Ms. Bush are among the farthest left of any Democrats in Congress and known for fiery rhetoric and political stunts. Ms. Bush was a loud voice calling for governments to “defund the police” when that fever took hold among liberals. Mr. Bowman famously pulled a fire alarm in the Capitol to delay a vote, and when caught denounced his Republican accusers as “Nazis” before eventually pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and facing House censure.
Ms. Bush and Mr. Bowman have faced increasing controversy since last fall’s terrorist assault on Israel. They bucked the overwhelming bipartisan consensus and attacked the victim — Israel — with Mr. Bowman accusing the country of genocide and Ms. Bush calling it “an apartheid state,” both of which are inaccurate.
With the Democratic Party facing a crisis of mounting antisemitism in its activist base, having two elected officials make such statements made them both lightning rods. The son of Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel even appeared in an ad targeting Mr. Bowman, urging voters to “confront Jamaal Bowman’s lies and conspiracy theories.” The ousting of Mr. Bowman and Ms. Bush is at least a positive sign that some Democratic voters are getting tired of the far-left shtick, especially the ugly antisemitism that comes with it.
It’s not just Democrats who have to deal with grandstanding extremists, of course. Consider the case of Rep. Bob Good in Virginia. When the two-term Republican congressman and chair of the House Freedom Caucus lost a close race in Virginia’s 5th District to a sensible, bridge-building opponent, people took notice. It’s a sign of a positive shift on the right, with politicians realizing that most conservative voters want common sense, not bomb-throwing.
Over his four years in Congress, Mr. Good became a caricature of himself, a man who takes no interest in the substantive, often difficult work involved in governing but only in the theater of hard-line positions from which there can never be negotiation or compromise. He threw wrench after wrench into congressional business, often stymying fellow Republicans with his antics. He showered outlandish promises of conservative reforms if only his colleagues held his hard line, only to have his plans inevitably collapse at the last minute and hand victories to Democrats.
Mr. Good’s main problem was not his conservative principles; it was his lack of basic political intelligence. It seemed to be even too much for members of the Freedom Caucus he chaired, who distanced themselves from him. Former President Donald Trump got tired of Mr. Good’s nonsense too, endorsing his opponent and telling his constituents that Mr. Good “is actually bad for Virginia, and will stab you in the back like he did me.”
Despite the media narrative, it’s Mr. Trump and his campaign that just might lead the Republican Party back to sanity. Mr. Trump has surrounded himself with sage advisers such as Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. They’re running a campaign that knows it needs to expand its voter base to groups such as suburban women that have fled the GOP over the past decade.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, congressional Republicans, even the most ardent House Freedom Caucus members, have ceased tilting at windmills by constantly threatening to oust their own leaders. (That’s the Democrats’ playbook now.) And unlike in 2022, mainstream Republicans across the country won challenges against implacable challengers. In state after state, from West Virginia to Montana and dozens of swing districts in between, Mr. Trump refused to endorse MAGA candidates against more centrist incumbents such as Reps. Mike Bost and Carol Miller. Mr. Trump knows that should he win the White House again, he will need these reliable Main Street conservatives to shepherd his agenda through Congress far more than attention-seeking fair-weather friends such as Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert.
The first party to embrace common sense, pragmatism and inclusive coalition-building over spectacle and division will have a major advantage come November and a sharp contrast with a political landscape marked by extremes. Democrats are trying to hold their most extreme members accountable, but right now it looks like Republicans are leading the way.
• Sarah Chamberlain is president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
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