Now, the group of 45 members is increasingly divided into two groups of freshmen. There are members who shifted positions in the suburbs and rejected Trump’s false allegations of electoral fraud – a group that includes single mothers and Cuban and Korean immigrants. And then there are those like representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, who have conquered red districts where loyalty to the president is paramount and conspiracy theories are common.
Conflicting factions in the freshman class reflect the broader divide in the Republican Party, where there is a widening chasm between a Trump-loving base and the moderate wing that can help make Republicans a majority party in 2022.
And some freshmen were more vocal than others. A highlight is Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who won a seat in the Republican Party in the Lowcountry and emerged as Trump’s most open critic and the “QAnon wing” in his class.
Mace criticized some Republicans for their potential roles in inciting the violent crowd on January 6, demanding that they face investigations and other possible repercussions, such as censorship – which would represent a forceful rebuke from a colleague.
“It is very important that we hold everyone accountable and hope that people are investigated to the fullest extent of the law – starting from the president down. Including members of Congress, ”said Mace, noting that“ all options ”should be on the table. “We allow QAnon conspiracy theorists to lead us.”
Mace, however, said he is not concerned with the potential negative effect of criticizing his new colleagues: “I did not operate out of fear”.
But she is also not blind to the risks facing her and her family’s physical security. Mace said he applied for a hidden transport license and sent his children home to DC shortly after he began receiving threats for swearing to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Meijer, meanwhile, said he is now investing in bulletproof vests after he joined just nine other Republicans to vote for impeachment. He also suggested that fears for personal security influenced some of his colleagues to support Trump’s challenges to the election results.
“This was for many of us, especially those who decided to vote for impeachment, one of the worst weeks of our lives, one of the most difficult votes we have ever received,” said Meijer on MSNBC. “I have been talking to several colleagues, but I feel physically sick.”
Much to the frustration of some GOP lawmakers, Minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, advised some of the freshmen on which states to oppose and even warned of possible primary challenges if they did not, POLITICO reported first.
And in the hours after the January 6 riots, when Congress started resuming the electoral certification process, some freshmen were still undecided on how to vote and sought the advice of senior lawmakers, according to sources familiar with the talks.
But in the end, most new House Republicans opposed the results, along with more than 120 Republican lawmakers. Several of the freshmen were even leading the charge against Biden’s victory and spoke at the House floor, including Boebert, Greene and newcomer Rep. Madison Cawthorn (RN.C.).
The marked differences in style and substance have led to some clashes between freshmen. During a Republican Party conference call on Monday, Mace and others criticized Boebert for suggesting that Capitol police officers were involved in the riot and for tweeting live about the speaker’s whereabouts during the siege. Boebert replied that it was not his intention and asked his colleagues not to accuse her of anything.
And the next day, Axios reported that Mace attacked Greene in a private text string among all the new members of the GOP, calling her “literally Mrs. QAnon”. Greene’s office said different points of view are expected in such a large class, but said the congresswoman was mainly concerned with the breach of privacy.
Greene replied to Axios with a similar feeling: “Who is the first year representative who is betraying everyone’s trust and leaking our group chat to the press?”
McCarthy tried to keep the unit in its ranks, repeatedly warning members not to attack each other because of their positions on the matter.
“I want everyone to understand: emotions are on the rise,” McCarthy said in a Republican Party conference call this week, according to a source familiar with the conversation. “What you say is important. We are not going to put other people in danger. Let’s see what words we are using and we will definitely not use the names of other members in any media. “
Amid the turmoil and impeachment, few new freshman classes experienced the chaos of the first few weeks in the office. And the political implications of his votes will reverberate over the next few months: the Democratic campaign arm in the House is already taking advantage of his impeachment and certification votes to use as a club in 2022.
Republican Party recruiters shouted about the rising stars that toppled Democrats in November, a diverse crop of candidates who hoped to improve the party’s image in suburban America and dominate the spotlight. There are the Reps. Young Kim, one of the first Korean-American women in Congress; Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, whose family fled Communist Cuba; and Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college.
But the sheer number of retirements of street Republicans in the Trump era means that the party has also seen an infusion of new representatives of safe red chairs. The most notable are Greene and Boebert, who suggested before winning the elections that they believed in aspects of the far-right QAnon movement.
Many of these new members were eager to emulate the president’s impetuous and often offensive style. MP Mary Miller (R-Ill.) Had to apologize during her first week in office for praising Hitler in a speech addressed to Trump supporters. Meanwhile, Dep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) Deleted his personal Twitter account after complaining that there were “more arrests for stealing a podium” on January 6 than for “stealing an election on” November 3 . Then there’s Cawthorn, who urged a crowd to “slightly threaten” his members of Congress if they want to motivate their votes and actions.
Coronavirus – and how to take it seriously – has also created a gap in the new GOP class. Freshman deputy Bob Good (R-Va.), A hard-line conservative who toppled libertarian Denver Riggleman in a primary, faced a negative reaction for calling Covid “a false pandemic” in a December speech in central Washington, A.D
And Greene sometimes refused to wear a mask, arguing that it is “my body, my choice”.
To which, Mace shot back a subtweet of her own: “My body. My choice. And I choose to wear a mask. ”
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.