Republican House members seeking higher office are having a rough year. They are finding out that experience in Congress isn’t necessarily a benefit back home.
In just the last few weeks, Rep. Dusty Johnson didn’t make the runoff to be South Dakota’s GOP nominee for governor, Rep. Randy Feenstra lost his bid to be Iowa’s GOP nominee for governor and Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace both didn’t make a runoff Tuesday night to win the GOP nomination to compete to be South Carolina’s next governor.
“The reality is there’s a reason House members are losing with a greater frequency than people expect,” Johnson told NOTUS. “And that’s because the service in the House is not a particularly big asset right now.” In the end, Johnson only got 23.4% of the vote.