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The field for the Republican primary in Maines sprawling 2nd Congressional District has shrunk to three after a little-known contender from Newburgh quit the race Wednesday.

I am no longer thinking about running for anything during this election cycle and decided to just throw popcorn and tomatoes from the sidelines, U.S. Army veteran Sean Joyce said.

His departure leaves two challengers trying to snatch the nomination from former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Orrington, who has by far the most campaign money and the support of national Republican organizations that want to see the GOP win the closely contested district in November.

Hoping to shock their party establishment and send Poliquin into political retirement are Liz Caruso of Caratunk, who has been making the rounds of county Republican committees recently, and Garret Swazey of Bangor.

Joyce, a fan of former President Donald Trump, said he would like to see Caruso do well. She is a longtime foe of the New England Clean Energy Connect project to bring hydropower from Quebec through a new transmission corridor in western Maine.

She brings a lot of energy to the GOP, he said, adding that he agrees with her about the hydropower project.

Maine power should come from Maine sources even if that means building a new generation nuclear plant and certainly not rely on a foreign dependence, Joyce said.

The winner of the Republican primary will get the chance to take on two-term U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat, assuming Golden wins a potential primary from Bangors Michael Sutton.

In addition to the major party candidates, the race has attracted two independents who are aiming for a spot on the November ballot: Tiffany Bond of Portland and Jordan Borrowman of Lewiston.

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Republican congressional candidate drops out to 'throw popcorn and tomatoes from the sidelines' - Press Herald

A political ad campaign from a group of Republicans and conservatives is singling out GOP House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy over his refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the events leading up to and surrounding the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

The Republican Accountability Project formerly Republican Voters Against Trump, a project of conservative anti-Donald Trump organisation Defending Democracy Together is paying for 50 billboards in Washington DC and in Mr McCarthys California district, asking, What are you hiding, Kevin McCarthy? Testify about January 6th.

The ads are set to run for the next four weeks.

Kevin McCarthy was one of the few people who spoke to Trump during the January 6 attack, Republican Accountability Project executive director Sarah Longwell said in a statement. Its time for him to tell the American people what he knows.

In a letter dated 12 January, the House select committee investigating the assault on Congress formally requested the cooperation of Mr McCarthy, who was in close contact with then-president Trump before, during and after the attack.

Congressman Bennie Thompson, who chairs the committee, said the panel obtained contemporaneous text messages from multiple witnesses expressing significant concerns about Mr Trumps state of mind and his ongoing conduct following the attack.

It appears that you may also have discussed with President Trump the potential he would face a censure resolution, impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment, wrote Mr Thompson, referring to a Constitutional provision that allows for Cabinet members to convene for the removal of the president.

It also appears that you may have identified other possible options, including President Trumps immediate resignation from office, Mr Thompson added.

Mr McCarthy who rejected the creation of a bipartisan committee to investigate the attack, led opposition to the formation of a select committee and pulled GOP members from it, then routinely criticised its work said in a statement that the committees only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents.

It is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committees abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward, he said in a statement last week.

The Independent has requested comment from Mr McCarthys office.

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What are you hiding? Republican groups billboard campaign targets McCarthys rejection of Jan 6 committee - Yahoo News

WASHINGTON Representative John Katko of New York, a centrist Republican who broke with his party last year to vote to impeach former President Donald J. Trump, announced on Friday that he would not run for re-election.

Mr. Katko was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Mr. Trump and is the third member of that group to announce his retirement.

In a statement that fell almost exactly one year after that vote, Mr. Katko said he decided to call it quits in order to enjoy my family and life in a fuller and more present way. He added that the loss of both his own parents and his wifes parents in the last three years provided life-changing perspective for me.

My conscience, principles, and commitment to do whats right have guided every decision Ive made as a member of Congress, and they guide my decision today, he said.

Mr. Katko, a former federal prosecutor, had grown increasingly marginalized by conservatives at home and among House Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have demanded total loyalty to Mr. Trump, played down the severity of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and eschewed working with President Biden. Those who veer off that course have found themselves attracting primary challengers, being pushed to the partys sidelines, or both.

Mr. Katkos sins in the eyes of his own party included supporting the creation of an independent commission to investigate the Capitol riot and backing a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan championed by Mr. Biden. He had already drawn three primary challengers and, if he survived that, was facing the likelihood of a brutal general election campaign.

New York Democrats, who tried and failed for years to oust him from the Syracuse-based seat, are currently eying new congressional lines that could make the district virtually unwinnable for Republicans, even in a year that officials in both parties believe favors the G.O.P.

Democrats and Mr. Trump found rare common ground to cheer Mr. Katkos decision.

Great news, another one bites the dust, Mr. Trump, who had offered to help those vying to unseat Mr. Katko in a primary, said in a statement.

Abel Iraola, a spokesman for House Democrats campaign arm, said the retirement highlighted how the Republican Partys rightward drift has made it toxic for so-called G.O.P. moderates.

Mr. Katko had been among a shrinking group of lawmakers who appealed to voters outside of his own party. When Mr. Biden won his central New York district in 2020 by 9 points in 2020, Mr. Katko prevailed by 10.

But the same centrist credentials that allowed Mr. Katko to hang onto his seat made him a target in conservative circles. After Republican leaders tasked him to work with Democrats on a proposal to create an independent Jan. 6 commission, they then abandoned the effort in favor of shielding Mr. Trump and the party from further scrutiny, urging lawmakers to oppose the plan Mr. Katko had negotiated.

When Democrats formed their own select committee to investigate the riot anyway, Mr. Katko infuriated hard-right members by voting in October to hold Stephen K. Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress for stonewalling their inquiry.

And Mr. Katko was one of 13 House Republicans who voted in November for the infrastructure bill, leading some in his party to brand him and the other G.O.P. supporters of the legislation traitors, and to call for Mr. Katko to be stripped of his leadership role on the Homeland Security Committee. He had been in line to become the panels chairman if Republicans won control of the House.

The anger from his right flank followed Mr. Katko home. The Conservative Party, a minor party in New York that backs Republicans in most races, had denounced him last April and formally withdrew its support from his re-election bid after he voted for a Democratic bill extending protections for gay and transgender rights.

Bernard Ment, the party chairman in Onondaga County, home to Syracuse, said that position was the last straw. In an interview, he called Mr. Katko a Democrat, though he retained support from his local Republican Party organization.

Hes been the one guy whos tried to work on both sides of the aisle, Mr. Ment said. The problem is hes managed to alienate a lot of conservative voters and tick off a lot of Republicans, and I dont think he can make up the ground with Democratic voters.

Democrats who control New York state government in Albany are widely expected to try to pad the district with new Democratic voters as they redraw the states congressional districts in the coming weeks, giving their party a stark advantage in November. Three Democrats two of them veterans have already entered the race.

With Mr. Katko and his crossover appeal out of the way, Democrats are likely to be less fearful of a Republican winning his district, giving them more wiggle room to further expand their majority as they redraw the map. New lines could yield as many as four new seats for Democrats in the House and deny Republicans five they currently hold. (New York is slated to lose one congressional seat this year after nationwide reapportionment.)

Mr. Katko, for his part, has maintained that he was focusing on supporting his partys policy priorities, lashing against Mr. Bidens immigration policies in particular, and working to bring home results for his district. In a statement last year, he made clear how dangerous he believed the former presidents conduct was in the run up to Jan. 6.

To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy, Mr. Katko said. For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action.

Nicholas Fandos reported from New York.

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Republican Who Voted to Impeach Trump Wont Seek Re-election - The New York Times

In the midst of the 2016 election, the Republican Party left Ron Johnsons Senate re-election candidacy in Wisconsin for dead.

But he clawed his way back and won anyway running 3 points ahead of Donald Trumps razor-thin margin over Hillary Clinton in the state.

This time, national party committees are preparing to go all in from the start to re-elect Johnson, who announced last week that he would seek a third term after months of deliberating. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC, which works to elect GOP senators, will do whatever it takes to keep the seat, as a senior Senate Republican consultant put it. And Wisconsin GOP operatives say big-money donors are likewise willing to dig deep.

Ron is going to get re-elected. The NRSC is all in for him, said Curt Anderson, a top adviser to the NRSCs chairman, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, and a founder of OnMessage, one of the organizations consulting firms for multiple races across the country.

Anderson said that when he worked for Johnson on his first campaign for the Senate in 2010, taking on incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold, no one within 100 miles of D.C. gave us a chance of beating Senator Feingold. He added, They considered it a joke.

It was the same in 2016, he continued, and the naysayers are out in force again now.

Video: Democrats 'target' Sen. Ron Johnson's seat in Wisconsin election

The naysayers this time are in the Democratic Party and part of the Washington chattering class, Republicans say. Johnson, one of Trumps most ardent supporters in the Senate, has advanced right-wing conspiracy theories, spread false claims about the 2020 presidential election and promoted dubious information about Covid, including a suggestion last month that gargling with mouthwash could kill the coronavirus. (Responding to the comments on CNN, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who had been recruited by national Republicans to run for the Senate but ultimately decided to run for re-election instead, said: When crazy comes knocking at the door, slam it shut.)

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YouTube suspended Johnsons account last summer, citing a violation of its misinformation policy related to the coronavirus.

Still, Republicans say theyre convinced that they cant take conventional political wisdom and apply it to Johnson. Other politicians who generated the headlines that Johnson has might be considered unelectable. But Johnson campaigned as a Washington outsider, an image he has continued to cultivate through regular statements opposing big government and defending personal freedoms. He has also taken hard-line positions against vaccination and mask mandates, issues that have divided Wisconsin along ideological lines.

The Democrats just dont get it, Anderson said. Being hated by the Washington insiders is a blessing. The voters love it.

And then theres just plain necessity. Protecting Johnson is crucial if Republicans want to gain control of the 50-50 Senate in the midterms.

This is for all the marbles, said Brandon Scholz, a Wisconsin Republican strategist. That gives him a strong fundraising position. He can get on the phone and say, You have to re-elect me if you want majority control.

The story was different in 2016. Johnsons re-election campaign, a rematch against Feingold, seemed to be flailing. He hadnt led in any poll the entire campaign, and by August the national party had all but pulled its funding from the race. That led other donors to take similar steps.

Johnson was still down by double digits heading into October. But a focus on local issues, such as delisting the gray wolf from the endangered species list, and a run of positive ads put him over the top. The national GOP did come back later, investing $2.5 million in the campaign in October. But two former Johnson campaign officials, who werent authorized to speak on record, said the national party backing came only after Johnson was on his way to overtaking Feingold.

Headed into the midterms, Johnsons numbers are lagging again. The most recent Marquette Law School poll, from late October, showed Johnson at 39 percent approval, reflecting a downward trend since 2019, said Charles Franklin, who heads the poll. But given that Johnson was even further behind in 2016, Franklin said, there is much room for him to grow. Among independents, 34 percent said they didnt have an opinion about whether Johnson should be re-elected.

And that has to be an opportunity for Johnson, because those are folks who ultimately might be pretty important for tipping the balance, Franklin said. But because they don't pay attention to him normally, they could be introduced to him during the campaign. And that could obviously work to either his advantage or to the Democrats advantage. But that leads to a fair chunk of folks that are still going to learn something about Ron Johnson maybe for the first time.

Theres also the Trump factor. Republicans say they fully expect the former president to rally the base for Johnson as the general election nears; Trump endorsed Johnson last year, before he had even announced that he would run again.

However, in August, a liberal activist posing as a conservative outside a GOP event caught Johnson on video saying there had been nothing skewed about the 2020 election results, even as Trump continues to push false claims of voter fraud.

Johnsons campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Democrats are savoring the chance to end Johnsons winning streak. Four Democrats have lined up to run: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry and Tom Nelson, the Outagamie County executive.

While Republicans frame the four-person primary field as a liability, Democrats say it only reinforces perceptions that Johnson is vulnerable.

I encourage Republicans to take victory for granted, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said, adding that its no surprise that the Republicans are desperate for money and trying to save his flailing campaign.

Wikler said that in the 2018 governors race, 16 candidates were trying at one point to oust GOP Gov. Scott Walker. Walker was ultimately defeated.

As previous Republican incumbents who went on to lose Wisconsin, like Scott Walker and Donald Trump, Ron Johnson has attracted a massive Democratic primary field of strong candidates who would be a dramatic improvement and has inspired people to volunteer for and donate to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Wikler said.

Democrats say the landscape has changed for Johnson this cycle, arguing that he can no longer run as a change agent now that he has gone against his own vow to limit himself to twoterms. That gives Democrats an opening to frame him as a creature of Washington dysfunction.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, or DSCC, says it is as committed to defeating Johnson as its Republican counterpart is to re-electing him. The DSCC chose to run its first campaign ad of the 2022 cycle against Johnson, hitting him for his votes on tax breaks and for going back on his two-term promise.

Ron Johnsons self-serving agenda makes him the most vulnerable incumbent on the Senate map, said Amanda Sherman Baity, a DSCC spokesperson. The DSCC is already making early and historic investments to build on-the-ground infrastructure for the general election and ensure we defeat him in 2022.

In Republicans view, Democrats routinely underestimate Johnson to their peril, and the sheer size of the multicandidate Democratic field along with midterm headwinds during the Biden presidency could make for a messy primary and general election in Wisconsin, a swing state.

The leading Democratic candidate, Barnes, just reported having raised about $1.2 million in the final quarter of last year, a slight increase over the $1.1 million he hauled in during the previous period after he announced. It was more than Johnson raised in that quarter.

Steven Law, the president of the Senate Leadership Fund, which is associated with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, promised more help for Johnson. He said the group came to Johnsons aid in the final month of the 2016 campaign with $2.5 million.

The prevailing attitude was that Feingold was too formidable but Johnson proved everyone wrong, Law said, adding that we are 100 percent behind his re-election.

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'We are 100 percent behind his re-election': GOP prepares to go all in for Ron Johnson - Yahoo News

Lane Cuthbert, along with his UMass colleague Alex Theodoridis, asked in an op-ed in The Washington Post:

How could the big lie campaign convince so many Republicans that Trump won an election he so clearly lost? Some observers wonder whether these beliefs are genuine or just an example of expressive responding, a term social scientists use to mean respondents are using a survey item to register a feeling rather than express a real belief.

In their own analysis of poll data, Cuthbert and Theodoridis concluded that most Republicans are true believers in Trumps lie:

Apparently, Republicans are reporting a genuine belief that Bidens election was illegitimate. If anything, a few Republicans may, for social desirability reasons, be using the Im not sure option to hide their true belief that the election was stolen.

Al-Gharbi sharply disputes this conclusion:

Most Republican voters likely dont believe in the big lie. But many would nonetheless profess to believe it in polls and surveys and would support politicians who make similar professions because these professions serve as a sign of defiance against the prevailing elites. They serve as signs of group solidarity and commitment.

Poll respondents, he continued,

often give the factually wrong answer about empirical matters not because they dont know the empirically correct answer but because they dont want to give political fodder to their opponents with respect to their preferred policies. And when one takes down the temperature on these political stakes, again, often the differences on the facts also disappear.

One way to test how much people actually believe something, al-Gharbi wrote, is to look out for yawning gaps between rhetoric and behaviors. The fact that roughly 2,500 people participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection suggests that the overwhelming majority of Republicans do not believe the election was stolen, no matter what they tell pollsters, in al-Gharbis view. He continued:

If huge shares of the country, 68 percent of G.O.P. voters, plus fair numbers of independents and nonvoters, literally believed that we were in a moment of existential crisis and the election had been stolen and the future was at stake, why is it that only a couple thousand could muster the enthusiasm to show up and protest at the Capitol? In a world where 74 million voted for Trump and more than two-thirds of these (i.e., more than 50 million people, roughly one out of every five adults in the U.S.) actually believed that the other party had illegally seized power and plan to use that power to harm people like themselves, the events of Jan. 6 would likely have played out much, much differently.

Whatever the motivation, Isabel V. Sawhill, a Brookings senior fellow, warned that Republican leaders and voters could be caught in a vicious cycle:

There may be a dynamic at work here in which an opportunistic strategy to please the Trump base has solidified that base, making it all the more difficult to take a stance in opposition to whatever Trump wants. Its a Catch-22. To change the direction of the country requires staying in power, but staying in power requires satisfying a public, a large share of whom has lost faith in our institutions, including the mainstream media and the democratic process.

Jake Grumbach, a political scientist at the University of Washington, noted in an email that the big lie fits into a larger Republican strategy: In an economically unequal society, it is important for the conservative economic party to use culture war politics to win elections because they are unlikely to win based on their economic agenda.

There are a number of reasons why some Republican elites who were once anti-Trump became loyal to Trump, Grumbach said. He continued:

First is the threat of being primaried for failing to sufficiently oppose immigration or the Democratic Party, a process that ramped up first in the Gingrich era and then more so during the Tea Party era of the early 2010s. Second is that Republican elites who were once anti-Trump learned that the Republican-aligned network of interest groups and donors Fox News, titans of extractive and low-wage industry, the N.R.A., evangelical organizations, etc. would mostly remain intact despite sometimes initially signaling that they would withhold campaign contributions or leave the coalition in opposition to Trump.

Frances Lee, a political scientist at Princeton, took a different tack, arguing that Republican members of Congress, especially those in the Senate, would like nothing better than to have the big lie excised from the contemporary political landscape:

I disagree with the premise that many senators buy into the big lie. Congressional Republicans stance toward the events of Jan. 6 is to move on beyond them. They do not spend time rebuking activists who question the 2020 outcome, but they also do not endorse such views, either. With rare exception, congressional Republicans do not give floor speeches questioning the 2020 elections. They do not demand hearings to investigate election fraud.

Instead, Lee argued, Many Republican voters still support and love Donald Trump, and Republican elected officials want to be able to continue to represent these voters in Washington. The bottom line, she continued, is that

Republican elected officials want and need to hold the Republican Party together. In the U.S. two-party system, they see the Republican Party as the only realistic vehicle for contesting Democrats control of political offices and for opposing the Biden agenda. They see a focus on the 2020 elections as a distraction from the most important issues of the present: fighting Democrats tax and spend initiatives and winning back Republican control of Congress in the 2022 midterms.

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, argues that

Trump lives by Machiavellis famous maxim that fear is a better foundation for loyalty than love. G.O.P. senators dont fear Trump personally; they fear his followers. Republican politicians are so cowed by Trumps supporters, you can almost hear them moo.

Trumpism, Begala wrote in an email, is more of a cult of personality, which makes fealty to the Dear Leader even more important. How else do you explain 16 G.O.P. senators who voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006 all refusing to even allow it to be debated in 2022?

Begala compares Senator Mitch McConnells views of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 Americas history is a story of ever-increasing freedom, hope and opportunity for all. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 represents one of this countrys greatest steps forward in that story. Today I am pleased the Senate reaffirmed that our country must continue its progress towards becoming a society in which every person, of every background, can realize the American dream to McConnells stance now: This is not a federal issue; it ought to be left to the states.

Republican politicians, in Begalas assessment,

have deluded themselves into thinking that Trump and the big lie can work for them. The reality is the opposite: Republican politicians work for Trump and the big lie. And they may be powerless to stop it if and when Trump uses it to undermine the 2024 presidential results.

It is at this point, Begala continued, where leadership matters. Trump stokes bigotry, he sows division, he promotes racism, and when other G.O.P. politicians fail to disavow Trumps divisiveness, they abet it. What a contrast to other Republican leaders in my lifetime.

Like Begala, Charles Stewart III, a political scientist at M.I.T., was blunt in his analysis:

Theres generally a lack of nuance in considering why Republican senators fail to abandon Trump. Whereas Reagan spoke of the 11th Commandment, Trump destroyed it, along with many of the first 10. He is mean and vindictive and speaks to a set of supporters who are willing to take their energy and animus to the polling place in the primaries or at least, thats the worry. They are also motivated by racial animus and by Christian millennialism.

These voters, according to Stewart,

are not a majority of the Republican Party, but they are motivated by fear, and fear is the greatest motivator. Even if a senator doesnt share those views and I dont think most do they feel they cant alienate these folks without stoking a fight. Why stoke a fight? Few politicians enter politics looking to be a martyr. Mainstream Republican senators may be overestimating their ability to keep the extremist genie in the bottle, but they have no choice right now if they intend to continue in office.

Philip Bobbitt, a professor of law at Columbia and the University of Texas, argued in an email that Republican acceptance of Trumps falsehoods is a reflection of the power Trump has over members of the party:

Its the very fact that they know Trumps claims are ludicrous that is the point: Like other bullies, he amuses himself and solidifies his authority by humiliating people, and what can be more humiliating than compelling people to publicly announce their endorsements of something they know and everyone else knows to be false?

Thomas Mann, a Brookings senior fellow, made the case in an email that Trump has transformed the Republican Party so that membership now precludes having a moral sense: honesty, empathy, respect for ones colleagues, wisdom, institutional loyalty, a willingness to put country ahead of party on existential matters, an openness to changing conditions.

Instead, Mann wrote:

the current, Trump-led Republican Party allows no room for such considerations. Representative Liz Cheneys honest patriotism would be no more welcome among Senate Republicans than House Republicans. Even those current Republican senators whose earlier careers indicated a moral sense Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, Lisa Murkowski, Robert Portman, Ben Sasse, Richard Shelby have felt obliged to pull their punches in the face of the big lie and attempted coup.

Bart Bonikowski, a sociologist at N.Y.U., describes the danger of this political dynamic:

In capturing the party, Trump perfectly embodied its ethnonationalist and authoritarian tendencies and delivered it concrete results even if his policy stances were not always perfectly aligned with party orthodoxy. As a result, the Republican Party and Trumpism have become fused into a single entity one that poses serious threats to the stability of the United States.

The unwillingness of Republican leaders to challenge Trumps relentless lies, for whatever reason for political survival, for mobilization of whites opposed to minorities, to curry favor, to feign populist sympathies is as consequential as or more so than actually believing the lie.

If Republican officials and their voters are willing to swallow an enormous and highly consequential untruth for political gain, they have taken a first step toward becoming willing allies in the corrupt manipulation of future elections.

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Opinion | Why Millions Think It Is Trump Who Cannot Tell a Lie - The New York Times