Donald Trump on Saturday will kick off his revenge tour against Republicans who defied him in the aftermath of the 2020 election and January 6 insurrection, hoping to convince his supporters to fire Ohio Rep. Anthony Gonzalez.
The effort to oust the Republicans who crossed him will be one of the biggest tests of Trump’s post-presidential power, assessing whether the former President still has the sway with base Republican voters that he enjoyed during his four years in the White House. Trump’s trip to Northeast Ohio is expressly meant to remind voters in the area of Gonzalez’s vote to impeach the Republican president earlier this year, and boost Max Miller, a former Trump aide who is challenging the congressman in the district’s Republican primary next year.
Trump cheered as Republicans in the Ohio congressional district erupted in anger after Gonzalez, a two-term congressman who had largely toed the Republican line, voted in favor of impeachment. Some voters accused him of doing the “unthinkable,” while others fumed that they had to wait until 2022 to oust him.
But time has helped Gonzalez, with even his most ardent opponents admitting that the furor around his vote has since dissipated, as voters go about their daily lives and, in part, forget about the outrages of early. “If the election was (months ago), I do believe Gonzalez would have lost,” said Jim Renacci, a longtime Ohio Republican who is mounting a primary challenge against incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine. “If the election was today, he is probably still in a danger zone… I think it would be a very tough race for him today, but he has got a year to prove himself out and voters do forget.”
Trump’s goal this weekend is to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“President Trump will aggressively campaign against any and all RINOS who do not represent the will of their voters,” Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for the former president, said, referring to “Republicans in Name Only.”
Gonzalez has stood his ground throughout the political fracas, arguing that Trump’s rhetoric ahead of the January 6 insurrection and the fact that Trump did little to stop those actions swayed him to back the impeachment charges. And he has doubled down: Much to the dismay of local Republicans, Gonzalez also voted to establish a bipartisan commission on the insurrection…
Gonzalez has also responded to the blowback by raising questions about his own party and warning members about too much Trump loyalty.”The reality inside our party is people do feel differently about President Trump. If we are going to win elections going forward, retake the House, retake the Senate, retake the White House, there has to be room for both,” he said in a May interview with The City Club of Cleveland. “And if we are going to excommunicate people who feel differently…I think it is a losing strategy for a party.”
But Gonzalez’s warnings have largely fallen on deaf ears among Republican activists in his district, many of whom are hellbent on ousting Gonzalez. And his break with Trump earned him a serious primary challenge from Miller, who announced his campaign in February expressly because Gonzalez “betrayed” his voters when he voted for impeachment.
“I won’t back down. And I’ll never betray them,” Miller tweeted at the time. Trump quickly endorsed his former aide.
But get this. You cannot make this stuff up:
Miller, despite being directly tied to Trump, has issues he will have to address during his campaign. Some Republicans, including another challenger to Gonzalez, have already noted Miller faced multiple criminal charges against him between 2007 and 2010.
