The Republican freshman class elected in 2020 to the House of Representatives has made somewhat of a splash in the 117th Congress, with many of them aligning with the House Freedom Caucus.
Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX) are some of the prominent recognizable names among that freshman class.
During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5, freshman Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) anticipates more of that in the upcoming 2022 midterms.
“Yeah, I think so,” he replied when asked about more House Freedom Caucus types getting elected in 2022. “If you look at the November 2020 election, down-ballot was a red wave. The only thing, the anomaly, was the top in the presidential race. The Republicans didn’t lose a single seat who ran for reelection. Half of my class, we joined the House Freedom Caucus, and I think almost doubled the House Freedom Caucus numbers — maybe not half, but we doggone sure brought a lot of conservatives patriots to the House Freedom Caucus. And those are the people to me when you’re up here that you really feel like you don’t need to shower when you leave the meeting. They are here for the right reasons. They’re not career politicians. They are here to stand for the people who sent them rather than the system that tried to prevent them.”
Moore cited pushback from the House Freedom Caucus against the new mask mandate imposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) earlier in the week, which came in the form of a protest on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol.
“And I think that’s how we’ve governed so much differently,” Moore continued. “And even — I think, that allows us like yesterday, we started in the House Freedom Caucus, a small group of said we’re going to the Senate without masks on because on one side of the Capitol, they don’t require masks. On Nancy’s side, she requires masks. So, let’s all go over and have a conservative senator give a speech. It started with the House Freedom Caucus, and by the time 3:45 yesterday afternoon Eastern time, there were 60 House members or so that went on the floor of the Senate with no mask on in a sort of non-compliant peaceful protest. Mike Lee spoke, and Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn all spoke. I didn’t get to hear them all because we were going back and forth for votes.”
“We are starting to see certain things if we lead on, others will follow,” he added. “Sometimes, it just takes the courage of a few to embolden the group. So, our class is so unique, I think, to the Hill in a sense that we truly are outsiders. We’re populists. We do not care if we get reelection. We do not care for long-term government, as far as us maintaining power. What we care about is us giving the voice back to ‘we the people,’ and that’s the purpose for us being here. All of us see it as a mission, and we intend to complete the mission.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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