Members Who Vote With Freedom Caucus Did Better Than Trump in Elections
Trump threatened the group in tweets on Thursday
By RYAN KELLY and SEAN MCMINN CQ Roll Call
Though President Donald Trump turned hostile on Twitter toward the conservative House Freedom Caucus on Thursday, his sway with those members’ constituents may not be enough to affect outcomes in the 2018 midterm elections.
Most members who have voted closely with the Republican House Freedom Caucus leaders — Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan from 2015-2016, and North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows this year — outperformed the president in the 2016 election in their districts, according to a Roll Call analysis of House voting and election data.
In the 768 House votes since 2015 where Jordan and Meadows voted the same and the Republican conference was not unanimous, the average Republican voted with the two caucus chairs 91 percent of the time.
The members who voted with the pair more than 91 percent of the time won their districts by an average of 7.5 percentage points more than Trump. The average for all House Republicans was slightly higher.
The House Freedom Caucus does not publish a listing of its members.
The analysis used data from CQ Floor Votes and the Daily Kos’ district-by-district breakdown of 2016 election results, and included only members who voted in at least half of roll calls during the past three years. This means freshmen in the current Congress were not counted.
Below is a look at the members who have voted closest with Meadows and Jordan, and how their districts cast their ballots in 2016.