Chapter 21 of our friend and longtime conservative leader Richard Viguerie’s 2014 book, “Takeover” is titled “It’s the Primaries, Stupid!”
He opens with this:
“Why do I keep repeating ‘It’s the Primaries, Stupid!”? Simple, because for more than a hundred years, we conservatives have had our political guns trained on the wrong target.
“We’ve been focused on defeating the liberal, Big Government Democrats, when the first, and most important, roadblock to our goal of governing America according to conservative principles is the progressive, Big Government Republicans.”
That’s as true today as when Viguerie wrote that book. Just look at how Senate Republicans – currently under the (mis)management of John Thune – continue to thwart President Trump’s “America First” agenda despite having the MAJORITY.
Case in point…
The Senate is now on spring break after caving in to Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer and passing – in the dead of night at 3:00 a.m. – a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security…EXCEPT for ICE and Border Patrol.
Seriously?
And it’s Senate REPUBLICANS who are deliberately blocking President Trump from issuing “recess appointments” to overcome Democrat opposition to his nominees for executive branch positions.
Viguerie continues…
“During the entire centuries-long civil war in the Republican Party, the progressive establishment leadership of the GOP has been selling the notion that the Democrats and the liberals are the problem, and that if conservatives would only line up behind establishment Republicans and put them in charge of the federal government, the growth of government and America’s slide toward socialism would stop.
“Nothing could be further from the truth.”
In fact, despite Trump’s efforts to reduce the size and cost of government via executive orders (hello, DOGE!) – which can be undone by the next president – Congress, despite Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate, has failed to cement those executive orders into legislation.
As Pogo famously put it, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Indeed, as Viguerie rightly points out, “merely having an *R* next to your name on the ballot does not mean you will hold fast to limited government constitutional conservative principles.”
Exhibit A: Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (a “red” state)
Unfortunately, establishment Republicans often fight conservatives as hard as, or harder, in the primaries than they fight the Democrats in the general election.
A classic example of this was Murkowski’s re-election campaign in 2022.
Trump and the Alaska Republican Party backed conservative challenger Kelly Tshibaka.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) backed Murkowski.
Murkowski ended up winning 54% to 46%.
But hang on. It’s even worse than that.
You see, Alaska stupidly adopted the Ranked (“Rigged”) Choice Voting system where the top four candidates from the non-partisan primary advance to the general election.
In the first round of counting, Murkowski only won 43.37% to Tshibaka’s 42.60%. But get this…
Another Republican, Buzz Kelly, was also on the general election ballot – but pulled out of the race in September. He threw his support behind Tshibaka, but it was too late for his name to be removed.
In the end, Kelly pulled 2.89% of the general election vote. And the Democrat on the ballot pulled 10.37%.
Now…
Under this goofy RCV system, since no candidate reached 50%+1, the lowest candidates were eliminated one-by-one, and their votes were redistributed to the other candidates remaining in the race.
And Murkowski gained a significant boost primarily from second- and third-choice votes of eliminated Democrat Pat Chesbro, since most of Chesbro’s supporters ranked Murkowski next.
What a nightmare. We still have Murkowski fouling things up – including opposing the SAVE America Act – thanks to Mitch McConnell, the NRSC…and Democrats!
Alas, all of this is not just a national problem.
SIDE NOTE: Drew Johnson – a current *R* candidate for Nevada State Treasurer – supports Rigged Choice Voting. His primary opponent, Jeff Carter, opposes it.
Conservatives in Nevada face the same challenges and problems from the mushy-moderate, go-along-to-get-along “establishment” GOP right here in River City.
Just look at how many legislators with an *R* after their name voted for the gas tax hike and/or the property tax hike in the last session. Not mention how many of them voted for the “Hollywood Handout.”
Which brings me to the bottom line…
It’s not enough to simply elect more Republicans. We need better ones, as well.
But you can’t elect *better ones* in the general election vs. the Democrats unless the *better ones* first win their primary elections.
So in Part II of this multi-part series, I’ll start diving into some to the critical, high-profile Nevada Republican primaries coming up in June.
Don’t touch that dial!
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com. You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.