Rice political scientist available to discuss GOP action to remove Cheney from congressional leadership

EXPERT ALERT

Amy McCaig
713-348-6777
amym@rice.edu

Rice political scientist available to discuss GOP action to remove Cheney from congressional leadership

HOUSTON – (May 11, 2021) – Republicans appear poised to remove Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her position as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-highest leadership post in the House GOP, as retribution for voting to impeach President Trump. Paul Brace, the Clarence L. Carter Professor of Political Science at Rice University, is available to discuss this move and its possible implications.

Paul Brace. Photo by Jeff Fitlow.

Brace said it appears the GOP sees aligning with Trump and the “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen as its best strategy for the 2022 midterm elections.

“GOP leaders such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Lindsay Graham believe they must capitalize on the energy among the party’s Trump supporters to carry them through 2022, even if this likely alienates the many suburban voters believed to have handed the 2020 victory to President Biden,” Brace said.

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, represents the “old” Republican party, he said.

“She, her father and former Republican standouts like Mitt Romney and John McCain were once conservative standard-bearers of the GOP. In the emerging Republican party, however, the critical litmus is more about allegiance to Trump than it is to core conservative policy principles,” Brace said.

“McCain would no longer recognize the Republican party in Arizona that is straining to overturn the 2020 election in that state with a circus-like vote recount many months after the election,” he added. “Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, was booed at the recent Utah Republican Party organizing convention and narrowly missed being censured by the convention. His crime: he voted twice to convict former President Trump.”

Brace said the GOP is at a critical juncture, forced to choose between the two factions of Republicans.

“This choice is painful because, likely, it is a choice between one or the other, but not both,” he said. “Aligning with the vocal Trump contingent also means accepting, or at least acquiescing to, some or many of the conspiracy theories or half-truths many of these supporters believe. These beliefs typically alienate some of the more traditional Republican voters.”

Brace is widely published, mainly on U.S. politics and judicial decision-making. He regularly comments to the media on presidential politics, the judiciary and the U.S. government. For more information on Brace, visit profiles.rice.edu/faculty/paul-brace. To schedule an interview, contact him directly at 832-628-5285.

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