Jeff Flake just says no to the ‘new’ GOP
Unwelcoming times for some conservatives
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake is leaving Congress because the kind of conservatism he champions no longer seems welcome in Steve Bannon’s GOP.
Flake, one of the few senators to speak up against President Trump, said Tuesday that he would not seek re-election. He was facing a tough primary challenge from Kelli Ward, a populist who already had secured the backing of Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist.
“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party,” Flake said on the Senate floor. Later to reporters, Flake said, “If I could run the kind of race I’d like to run and believe I could win a Republican primary, I might go forward.”
Before being elected to the Senate in 2012, Flake had served six terms in the House, where he built a reputation as a crusader against wasteful government spending. He established a reliably conservative voting record — the American
Conservative Union gave him a 93% lifetime rating — but his criticism of the president had alienated many of Arizona’s far-right voters, the very voters most likely to show up for midterm primaries.
Trump has not been timid in punching back at Flake, saying over the summer that he was “weak on borders” and “toxic.”
Flake became a key target of Bannon and his anti-establishment allies, who have vowed to put up candidates against any senator — in either party — who was hampering Trump’s agenda or was too close to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Today Steve Bannon and the entire Trump movement added another scalp to his collection, and other ‘never Trump’ incumbents should be very nervous right now,” Andrew Surabian, a senior adviser at the pro-Trump advocacy organization Great America Alliance and a close ally of Bannon’s, told USA TODAY after the announcement.
Flake’s departure may just be a signal that some people cannot compete in the new Republican political climate.
“Most incumbents are realizing that the old ways of doing things aren’t going to work anymore,” said Adam Brandon, president of the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks. “The old ways of raising money and doing TV ads isn’t going to work.”