Trumps primary threats flop in conservative districts
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Source: KC Star
MERIDIAN, IDAHO
At a turbulent town hall over the congressional recess, Republican Rep. Raúl Labrador fielded anguished questions about Russia, outrage over President Donald Trump’s tax returns and the stray query about recreational rock collecting.
But during the three-hour session at a middle school here in the Boise suburb of Meridian, not a single questioner from the 800-person audience criticized Labrador for his role in scuttling Trump’s health care bill last month, even though the president publicly blamed Labrador and his conservative House Freedom Caucus allies as it collapsed.
It’s the latest sign that the threats the White House issued to members of the House Freedom Caucus for opposing that bill, which would have repealed much of the Affordable Care Act, aren’t resonating. And it’s evidence that, even in the Trump era, many of these hardline conservative members face little pressure from constituents to toe the party leadership line as more legislative fights loom.
“The idea that anyone, let alone the current president, could come in and convince people to not vote for (Labrador) in a primary is beyond laughable,” said John Foster, a Boise-based operative who was the campaign manager for Labrador’s 2010 Democratic opponent, Walt Minnick, but has come to consider Labrador a friend. “He knows his district. Trump doesn’t know this district.”
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