(USA Features) Several Republicans who voted to impeach and convict former President Donald Trump are now facing a wealth of primary challengers, and many of the incumbents aren’t polling well against their challengers.
Nine of the 10 Republican House members are already facing primary challenges, Fox News , and many are already underwater.
Trump has pledged to campaign against those who voted to impeach him and has begun to make endorsements of other candidates ahead of the 2022 midterms who back his ‘America First’ agenda.
“Instead of attacking me and, more importantly, the voters of our movement, top establishment Republicans in Washington should be spending their energy in opposing Biden, Pelosi, Schumer and the Democrats,” Trump said during his speech at CPAC in February.
“Get rid of them all,” he added.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was one of the first incumbents to get primary challengers. State Sen. Anthony Bouchard so far has raised the most money, surpassing $500,000. He told Fox News that Cheney’s impeachment vote “made it obvious … to everyone” that “she has not had a conservative vote in Washington.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina also faces several primary challengers, the network reported. They include Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride and state Rep. William Bailey, as well as conservative influencer Graham Allen.
“I think that President Trump showed the world that you don’t have to be a politician to become a politician,” Allen told Fox News recently.
“Tom Rice forgot his place,” Allen added. “It’s Tom Rice’s job to be the conduit – that is the voice – of the people that he represents. He did not do that.”
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington has at least four primary challengers, including former Green Beret Joe Kent.
“Rep. Beutler voted for the impeachment of President Trump based on a false narrative that Trump inspired an armed insurrection against the Capitol,” Kent said in an email to the outlet. “But the facts don’t matter to the left or Rep. Beutler.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois is being challenged by Catalina Lauf, 27, who worked in the Trump administration in the Commerce Department. She has slammed him as a “fake Republican.”
Others who voted to oust Trump and are facing challenges ahead of the 2022 elections include Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.; Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio; Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.; Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich.; Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.; and Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y.
Newhouse faces at least three challengers including state Rep. Brad Klippert and former GOP candidate for governor, Loren Culp. After his vote, Republicans in his district called on him to step down.
Former Trump aide Max Miller is facing off against Gonzalez; Miller is the best-financed candidate thus far, Fox News added.
Miller told the network “weak Republicans” like Gonzalez “need to see the door and have an exit.” He added that Trump is backing him because “he knows that I am not ever going to fold or take a knee, and I will continue to fight for the people and the America First agenda no matter at what cost.”
Upton, father of model Kate Upton, has at least five challengers so far, including two sitting officeholders – state Rep. Steve Carra and Berrien County Commissioner Ezra Scott. He’s also been rebuked by state Republicans.
Meijer, an Iraq veteran who replaced former Rep. Justin Amash in 2020 after Amash left the Republican Party, has otherwise had an unremarkable congressional career thus far outside of his impeachment vote. He has at least three challengers, including Audra Johnson of Kalamazoo, who is known as the “MAGA bride” after wearing a pro-Trump wedding dress, and former Sand Lake Village President Tom Norton.
Valadao, who served three terms then lost in 2018 but regained his seat in 2020, is facing a primary challenge from Chris Mathys, an Army veteran and former member of the Fresno City Council.
“When David Valadao decided to not only vote to impeach President Trump, but he called President Trump un-American and unfit for office, to me it was an act that you just don’t do as a conservative Republican,” Mathys told Fox News.
So far, Katko is the only GOP lawmaker to vote for impeachment who has yet to see a primary challenger.