Tuesday brought news of yet another Republican upending the particularly narrow majority in the House of Representatives. We already knew that Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) was going to retire, but what he revealed on Tuesday is that it will be the end of this week as opposed to him just serving out the rest of his term.
Such a move looks to be creating all sorts of concerns for Buck's fellow House Republicans. Not only is "Ken Buck" trending over X for his announcement--and people certainly have strong thoughts--but so is "Speaker Jeffries," in reference to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Republican Ken Buck is leaving Congress next week which means Republicans have lost another seat in the house and we’re one seat closer to Speaker Jeffries! pic.twitter.com/mzglclJbB4
— Luke Beasley (@lukepbeasley) March 12, 2024
One might say, the MAGAs are passing the Buck!
— GeeGee (@GeeGeeAkili) March 12, 2024
Can't wait to see the gavel passed to Speaker Jeffries! pic.twitter.com/zVzjnqL9g8
A few more of these and it's Speaker Jeffries. https://t.co/F57RP2AaGR
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 12, 2024
Once Buck leaves, there's just a two-seat majority for Republicans in the House. There's still vacancies left by former Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Bill Johnson (R-OH).
There was speculation last October once McCarthy was ousted as speaker and in January of last year as well, when it took several days and 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to finally earn the gavel. With each Republican who leaves, though, that speculation takes on more of a serious tone.
Of course, Buck isn't the only House Republican to have left the 118th Congress. As mentioned, there's McCarthy and Johnson, the latter who left in late January to serve as president of Youngstown State University. Now former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was also expelled last December.
Santos was only the sixth member of Congress to be expelled from the House in the country's history. He was the only Republican and the only member not convicted of a crime or who had fought for the Confederacy. Santos is, however, facing numerous charges from the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. A report had also been released the month before by the House Ethics Committee.
To add insult to injury to that vacancy, Santos' seat is now held by a Democrat. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who had held the seat before he left to launch an unsuccessful primary challenge against Gov. Kathy Hochul, won in last month's special election for New York's 3rd Congressional District. He was sworn in a few weeks later.
Long list.
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) March 12, 2024
Santos himself chimed in to say those who voted to expel him "aren’t tiered [sic] of screwing the American people!," though he likely meant to say "tired of."
These guys aren’t tiered of screwing the American people! https://t.co/egK5pyT6WV
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) March 12, 2024
CNN here he goes! https://t.co/wLpPqUABXH
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) March 12, 2024
With enough absences, or heaven forbid more vacancies, Democrats could file a motion to vacate the chair, which is how McCarthy's own fellow Republicans got rid of him last October. While just eight Republicans voted to oust McCarthy, Buck among them, every single Democrat voted to do so as well, at Jeffries' behest. If Democrats show up, and we already know they're united in their support for him, Jeffries would likely get the gavel.
What's key about Jeffries, is that unlike McCarthy and all the other failed Republican nominees for speaker before current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), he has received unified support from all of his fellow Democrats each time there's been a vote for speaker.
Jeffries is no moderate Democrat. The House, and thus 118th Congress, especially while the Senate is under Democratic control, would be completely transformed.
One point that comes to mind is Jeffries' election denialism about Donald Trump legitimately winning in 2016, all while complaining about "MAGA Republicans" and their qualms with the 2020 election.
REMINDER:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 25, 2023
House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries is an Election Denier pic.twitter.com/ZhqkmJALlm
Meet Election Denier Hakeem Jeffries — the new leader of the House Democrats. pic.twitter.com/vCh19NsLQx
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 17, 2022
As we addressed in a VIP piece from late October of last year, when Johnson earned the gavel after being the House Republican conference's fourth nominee to replace McCarthy, Jeffries engaged in all sorts of ranting and raving "about the state of our democracy" and how "Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election."
"He’s doing a great job under difficult circumstances and no amount of election denialism will ever change that reality. Not now. Not ever," Jeffries claimed. Just as other Democrats have done, Jeffries even compared January 6 to from January 6 to the terrorist attacks on September 11, Jim Crow, World War II, the Great Depression, and the Civil War.
Election denier Hakeem Jeffries compares Jan 6 to 9/11
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 25, 2023
Notice he says the buildings on 9/11 were “unexpectedly struck” without mentioning the terrorists responsible.
He’s more upset about Americans who took selfies in the Rotunda for a few hours. pic.twitter.com/FR5uucvFpb
Let's also not forget how in January of last year, just before handing McCarthy the gavel in the early morning hours of January 7, Jeffries was talking for so long in an A-Z contrast between what Democrats and Republicans stood for that he was nearly drowned up by boos.
Buck has been trending over social media for the disappointment against such a move. He's been disappointing Republicans for some time, though. Not only did he vote in favor of ousting McCarthy, he was the only one of the eight who didn't sign onto a letter with the others signaling he'd accept punishment in order for House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) to be made speaker.
Last month he was also only one of three House Republicans who voted against impeaching Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which forced a second vote a week later in order to do so, once House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) had returned from cancer treatments.
There's also appears to be confusion as to if Buck gave Johnson notice, which he said he did, via a voicemail message left 30-minutes before.
Speaker Mike Johnson was caught off guard by the announcement from Ken Buck retiring early.
— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotcnn) March 12, 2024
“I was surprised by Ken’s announcement. I look forward to talking to him about that,” he told reporters.
He said he did not know in advance: “I did not know.” pic.twitter.com/7egUzQcBRg
A Buck spokesperson tells me Buck called and left Johnson a voicemail about 30 minutes before the retirement announcement went live to give him a heads up about his plans to leave Congress next week https://t.co/XUtlEChqmi
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) March 12, 2024
Republicans are lucky that the 4th Colorado District, which Buck will represent until the end of the week, is particularly Republican. His successor almost certainly will be, as Buck won his district in 2022 with 60.9 percent of the vote.
His early retirement, though, and the race to succeed him, could put fellow Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, currently of Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, in a particularly tough spot. Boebert won't be running for reelection in that district, but rather is running in a particularly crowded primary to replace Buck from when he had previously announced he would retire at the end of his term.
A Republican with connections in the CO state party tells me Buck’s early retirement will make it “harder” for Boebert.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) March 12, 2024
They predict that either Jerry Sonnenberg or Deborah Flora will get the vacancy in the special, while voters will wonder why Boebert isn't on that ballot.
We're already used to hearing from Democrats how unproductive the 118th Congress has been with Republicans in control of the House, and so more mockery is almost certainly expected to come. As we covered in another VIP piece from last month, it's hardly surprising that the CQ Roll Call's annual Vote Studies analysis of congressional data from last year found "House GOP had lowest win rate on ‘party unity’ votes since 1982."
Nevertheless, RealClearPolling still has Republicans overall up by +2.4 on the congressional ballot for 2024, with 45.3 percent to Democrats' 42.9 percent support.
It certainly will be interesting to see how Trump's coattails make or break House Republicans when it comes to the 2024 general election. He's up +1.7 against President Joe Biden, with 47.4 percent support to Biden's 45.7 percent.
