The conservative Club for Growth plans to target critics of former President Trump in the upcoming elections, particularly Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) over their votes in support of impeachment.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Politico that Cheney and Gonzalez are good targets due to their impeachment votes and deviation from the anti-tax organization’s economic goals
Club for Growth is reportedly endorsing Max Miller, a former White House aide running for Gonzalez’s seat whom Trump has also endorsed, and plans to meet with potential challengers to Cheney.
The organization will also consider working to defeat Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), whom Trump vowed to campaign against following her vote to convict the former president in his Senate impeachment trial, Politico noted.
“This is part of a strategy we’ve got this cycle,” McIntosh said, according to the news outlet. “Where we see incumbents who are not good on the economic issues … when they stumble and become vulnerable, and there’s a good strong economic conservative on the other side, we’re going to look at that race and get involved in the primaries.”
“What the impeachment vote does is make them vulnerable to a primary challenger,” the former Indiana representative added.
Cheney and Gonzalez were two of the 10 House Republicans who supported Trump’s second impeachment over his role in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol siege, sending the matter to a Senate trial. Senators ultimately acquitted the former president, although their impeachment vote was the most bipartisan in history.
Josette Milli, Gonzalez’s campaign manager, said the Club for Growth had “a long history of failing to vet their endorsed candidates and costing Republicans elections,” according to Politico.
“It’s no surprise they would rush into yet another Republican primary without doing their homework,” Milli said. “We have no doubt that a fully informed electorate will vote to reelect Anthony Gonzalez to a third term.”
Cheney political adviser Kevin Seifart told The Hill that the Republican Conference chair “knows the Republican Party is the party of Reagan and must stand for fidelity to the constitution, limited government, low taxes, a strong national defense and competent conservative leadership.”
“Apparently, the Club for Growth has a different agenda,” Seifart added.
Trump has called out the House members and senators who backed his impeachment or conviction. During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump called for the GOP to “get rid” of these lawmakers, specifically naming Cheney as a “warmonger.”
Almost all 10 of the House Republicans who voted for impeachment have primary challengers, with several candidates considered allies to the former president.
The Club for Growth campaigned against Trump in the 2016 election, labeling him as “the worst kind of politician.”