Rep. Ken Buck isn’t the first House Republican to announce his retirement this year, but the Coloradan’s declaration on MSNBC this afternoon was arguably the most significant.
The news jolted the political world, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. Let’s review our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
For those unfamiliar with the Colorado Republican, after nearly a decade on Capitol Hill, Buck earned a reputation as one of Congress’ most far-right members. This posture, however, was not without limits.
As a Washington Post analysis noted in July, Buck questioned the merits of GOP impeachment-related efforts, backed the FBI in the midst of a Republican offensive against federal law enforcement, and took Donald Trump’s indictments seriously when his party did the opposite.
In the months that followed, the congressman ignored intra-party pressure and kept going.
For many of his GOP colleagues, this could not stand. A variety of Republican insiders began working weeks ago on recruiting a primary challenger to take on Buck, and members such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she wanted Buck to be removed from the House Judiciary Committee and the conference’s whip team.
The right-wing Georgian told CNN in September there was an “unbelievable” level of frustration with Buck within the conference, and CNN’s Melanie Zanona said the “knives are out” for the Coloradan.
It’s against this backdrop that Buck decided it’s time to walk away.
When it comes to the positions the Colorado Republican took that outraged his far-right colleagues, it’s important to keep in mind that everything he’s said has been true. But Buck’s GOP critics haven’t said that they caught him lying; they’ve said that they caught him rejecting Republican talking points — which in their eyes, is vastly worse than lying.
For too much of the congressional GOP, dissent is neither welcome nor tolerated. Buck’s willingness to stick to some of his principles effectively ended his career, which says more about the state of his party than his positions.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.