Serious, Capable Republican Politicians Exist

On the menu today: As stretches of the southern states dig out from the muck of a devastating hurricane and Florida endures another, the disparate reaction of two Republican members of Congress from the South illustrates the vivid divide between those who want to be a part of the solution and those who are comfortable being a part of the problem. Americans, you don’t have to accept having a nutjob represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives. These people can be defeated in primaries, and you can get a serious upgrade. You don’t have to live like this!

Also, new polling indicates that America is getting a Republican-controlled Senate next year.

The Hurricanes Demonstrate That the GOP Doesn’t Have to Be the Party of Nutjobs

North Carolina’s eleventh district covers most of the western portion of the state, including Asheville. This is one of the regions where the wrath of Hurricane Helene was most severe: just about the worst possible combination of torrential downpours, deadly floods, and landslides in the mountains. The images of towns devastated, homes destroyed, and everything covered in the remains of a tidal wave of mud are searing.

The current congressman from the eleventh district is Republican Chuck Edwards. You may not have heard much about him; so far in his career in the U.S. House of Representatives, he’s been a workhorse, not a show horse.

His congressional web page is full of information about the hurricane response and where to find FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance Sites, which water systems are not yet safe to drink from, where to find bottled-water distribution sites, where Home Depot is distributing disaster-relief kits, where Walmart is serving free hot meals, and where portable restrooms are available. Edwards’s feed on X is similarly chock full of information that residents in the region need to know.

Tuesday, Edwards also felt the need to issue a press release, which was emailed to constituents, to address some wild and bizarre rumors he was hearing in his district. I urge you to read all of it, as it gives you a sense of the paranoia, conspiracy theories, and nonsense flourishing in certain corners of this country:

Those who want to believe the conspiracy theories will likely choose to keep believing the conspiracy theories. But Edwards did what he could to dispel the rumors and give people the facts they need, at a time when getting reliable information is critically important.

Yesterday, Edwards wrote to his constituents again: “It is disappointing such an email had to be sent in the first place, but I hope I have been able to quell any concerns felt by citizens of Western North Carolina. The reality is these conspiracy theories, while certainly frustrating, have done more harm than most people may realize. The spreading of falsehoods has diverted state, local, and federal resources from helping NC-11 recover toward refuting hearsay and repeatedly trying to set the record straight.”

When something as terrible as Hurricane Helene — or Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida last night — happens, all of us face a choice. We can be part of the solution or part of the problem.

Edwards’s predecessor in this district was Madison Cawthorn, who was the youngest congressman since 1965 and at one point was supposed to be the Next Big Thing in GOP politics. (The New Republic, August 19, 2020: “Madison Cawthorn Is the Future of the Republican Party.”)

But Cawthorn alienated everyone with farfetched tales of members of Congress inviting him to orgies, and he lost the 2022 primary to Edwards. After that, Cawthorn blew off his duties. He stopped doing anything related to the job long before his term ended: In January 2023, as the old Congress ended and the new Congress began, the “office of former Congressman Madison Cawthorn did not transfer official constituent casework, which is standard practice for any legislative transition. Due to this lack of information, Congressman Edwards and his staff have no way of knowing which constituents had ongoing casework or other outstanding federal issues.”

Imagine if a devastating hurricane had hit western North Carolina while Cawthorn was still technically in office but had long since quit doing any work.

The upgrade from Cawthorn to Edwards is like trading in your Yugo for a Ford F-150.

You might argue that North Carolina’s eleventh district made the greatest upgrade in representation in modern history, except the voters of Iowa’s fourth congressional district will point out that they replaced Steve “White Supremacy Isn’t Offensive” King with Randy Feenstra — another GOP congressman you don’t hear much about because instead of courting controversy and shooting his mouth off, he focuses on doing his job and representing his constituents the best he can. Feenstra is busy with things like visiting every county in the district twice a year, holding town halls, and touring the local Air National Guard base. You know, the actual job that his district elected him to do.

You don’t have to accept being represented by a loon. There are better options out there; there are better Republicans out there.

The State of Georgia also suffered the effects of Hurricane Helene. And one particular member of Congress from Georgia has indeed been talking about hurricanes a lot in recent weeks.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the representative of the state’s 14th congressional district:

The NOAA government website has a library catalog of 1,026 entries of weather modifications, but that’s not all of them. If your home or business or property is damaged or a loved one is killed by their weather modifications shouldn’t you be eligible for compensation? After all, did they ask you if you agreed to our weather being modified?

Representative Greene isn’t bothering to share any way to get relief assistance from FEMA, but she is encouraging you to file a lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

She also insists many patents have been filed for methods of controlling the weather, citing the Gateway Pundit as a supporting source.

I know it seems like the Republican Party is stuck with MTG’s odious geyser of nonsense and conspiracy theories forever, but the experiences of Madison Cawthorn and Steve King tell us otherwise.

ADDENDUM: Tuesday I pointed out in the Corner that, based on the past two presidential cycles, if Trump is winning a state, the GOP Senate candidate is extremely likely to win. I emphasized that this was ominous news for Montana senator Jon Tester and Ohio senator Sherrod Brown and reassuring news for Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, Texas’s Ted Cruz, and Florida’s Rick Scott.

This morning, the New York Times unveiled the results from new surveys in three Senate races. In Montana: “Tim Sheehy, a wealthy Republican businessman and a former Navy SEAL who has never held public office, leads Mr. Tester 52 percent to 44 percent.” In Texas: “Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican seeking his third term, leads his Democratic challenger, Representative Colin Allred, 48 percent to 44 percent.” In Florida: “Senator Rick Scott, the Republican incumbent, is comfortably ahead of Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, his Democratic rival, by an even wider margin, 49 percent to 40 percent.”

Now, you may recall the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and certain liberal columnists insisting that Texas and Florida were in play. This is because these people always see what they want to see.