In September, Georgia State Senator Colton Moore launched an audacious defense of Donald Trump. The plan: Call a special session of the state legislature and impeach or defund Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for indicting the former president on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election.
That gambit isn’t exactly shocking. Moore represents Georgia’s deep-red 53rd State Senate district in Northwest Georgia, the same part of the state that Marjorie Taylor Greene represents in Congress.
But you may not be expecting what happened next: The Republican caucus in the Georgia Senate tossed Moore out, indefinitely suspending him and publishing a lengthy statement detailing how annoyed they are with him. Moore had taken Trumpophilia too far in a state where the GOP is headed by Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who not only rebuffed Trump’s efforts to steal the Georgia election in 2020 but were handily reelected in 2022.
Moore doubled down after being suspended, calling the Republican State Senate Caucus “the RINO caucus” and accusing them of acting like children. When I reached him by phone before Thanksgiving, he told me he’s now focused on his “Stop the Political Persecution Act,” which would change the RICO law under which Trump was indicted. While few Georgia Senators have leapt to the 30-year-old’s defense, the debate about how staunchly to defend Trump is forming new political factions nationwide. As Moore told me, “You’ve got the liberty constitutionalist Republicans who have joined forces now with the MAGA and the ultra-MAGA” to fight against the less devoted Republicans and Democrats.
Far from being limited to the Georgia State Senate, this dizzying Republican division, often along the silliest lines, can be seen in fissures across the country, from red states like Texas to swing states like Michigan and Arizona.
It’s even taking place in the U.S. House of Representatives, where months of drama resulted in a near-nobody, Mike Johnson, becoming Speaker of the House because, in the words of Senator Tommy Tuberville, probably the most divisive figure in the upper chamber because of his blunderbuss blocking of military promotions, “I guess he hasn’t been here long enough to make a lot of people mad.”
While it may be satisfying for Democratic partisans to watch Republicans form a circular firing squad, red states deserve to be governed well. We all deserve a politics where reasonable people butt heads, not where one of the two parties is exploding over frivolous issues or the purely subjective, useless question of who and what a RINO is. Wherever state leaders draw the line on MAGA-ness—and they do so in different spots—it’s a waste of their time, money, and energy.
In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached in May for allegations of bribery and corruption. Paxton is a Republican, as are 60 of the 121 Texas House Representatives who voted to impeach him. Paxton refused to relent, calling the impeachment a “politically motivated sham from the beginning” and accusing the bipartisan coalition that impeached him of being “in lockstep with the Biden Administration, the abortion industry, anti-gun zealots, and woke corporations” in an effort to form a sentence with the maximum number of Republican buzzwords.
Ultimately, backed by Trump and the state’s junior U.S. Senator, Ted Cruz, this defense worked, and he was acquitted in the Texas Senate of all 20 articles against him, with only two Republicans voting to convict. The small Texas Senate, with each member representing more voters than a U.S. congressional district, had been convinced that the impeachment was much ado about nothing.
Now acquitted and returned to his post, Paxton has embarked on a revenge tour, endorsing primary opponents of the Republicans who impeached him. “Texas conservatives have seen their State House hijacked by liberal RINO Republicans for far too long,” he recently said.
Up in Michigan, it’s “MAGA vs ultra-MAGA,” as Patrick Marley of The Washington Post reported. There are constant battles at the local and state level over who gets to be the standard-bearer(s) of the Trump wing of the party, which delivered the first Republican presidential victory in the state in 28 years in 2016. This infighting has spilled over into the U.S. Senate race, where former Representative Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Republicans to vote for the second impeachment of Donald Trump, is running for the seat left open by retiring Democrat Debbie Stabenow. The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), has responded to Mejer’s bid by saying that he “isn’t viable in a primary election, and there’s worry that if Meijer were nominated, the base would not be enthused in the general election.”
As for the state party, the infighting (and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt) has gotten so bad that the recently-elected election-denying state party chair, Kristina Karamo, is now facing efforts to remove her.
Down in Arizona, 2020 gets endlessly re-litigated. The leading Republican U.S. Senate candidate is Kari Lake, the narrowly beaten gubernatorial candidate from 2022, who claims that her election was also stolen. Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego is running for that Senate seat, currently held by Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat-turned-Independent, who has not indicated whether she’ll seek a second term. If Sinema does run, one would think the Republicans would have an advantage as a Democrat runs against a formerly Democratic incumbent. And yet, most polls show Gallego on top, whether or not Sinema decides to run. Even the NRSC’s own poll showed Gallego ahead.
Seeing such polls, Lake has started to reach out to more establishment Republicans to get their votes. But as Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson told Arizona Central, “I think I’m a pretty good PR/communication person, but I have no f—ing idea of how she can erase two years of just the most vitriolic statements on the RINOs and moderate McCain wing of the Arizona Republican Party and independents.”
Democrats, of course, are by no means monolithic. They have their cleavages, too. Regular debates take place over hot-button issues like climate, health care, race, and now, Israel. But these issues are at least substantive. Arguing about how MAGA you are, whether you’re a RINO, or whether the 2020 election— now three years in the past—may be a way to beef up one’s fundraising, but it’s unlikely to win elections except in places so red it doesn’t matter what you say.
Plus, there are real and important reasons why everyone, including Democrats, should want Republicans to focus on the real and important at the cost of the immaterial and stupid. State Senator Colton Moore—banished from the Georgia Republican Caucus for his gambit—has some interesting takes. For instance, he opposes state Republicans’ devotion to Georgia’s large subsidies for the film and TV industry. That’s a real issue with real money that touches on the culture war but also merits real discussion, unlike a doomed effort to usurp a prosecutor.
Imagine if the quote-unquote realigned Republicans could focus on Big Tech (or campaign finance reform, banking reform, or family benefits) instead of past elections. Imagine if Matt Gaetz focused on his distaste for omnibus bills!
The government was nearly shut down (and might be early next year) because Republicans—who will inevitably run the U.S. House from time to time—couldn’t get along. And in states controlled by Republicans like Texas, Arizona, and Georgia, or even states where Republicans have significant influence, like Michigan, Republican disunity means less governing, less legislating, and less action for the citizens who elected them.
