INFLUENCERS ||| PERFORMANCE REVIEW Outmuscling Trump The president has blasted the House Freedom Caucus, but most of them had bigger wins than he did on Nov. 8 Amid the collapse of the Republican plan Free to Object to repeal and replace the 2010 health care Most House Freedom Caucus members who — law, President Donald Trump threatened according to reporting and tracking by Roll Call’s the members of the House Freedom Lindsey McPherson — said they’d vote against the Caucus, the ultra-conservative faction health care bill last month, had won in November by that played a leading role in sinking the solid margins and outperformed Trump in their legislation championed by Speaker Paul D. districts. Ryan and Trump. Trump pledged in a tweet to “fight Rod Blum, IA-01 4.11 % pts. higher —winning margin compared to Trump’s them” in 2018, implying that he would in district Dave Brat, VA-07 back primary challengers. But there’s a 8.77 problem: Of 21 caucus members who said Tom Garrett, VA-05 5.56 they planned to vote no on the GOP bill, Winning margins Ted Yoho, FL-03 only one had anything like a close race last 0.82 Trump November. Ron DeSantis, FL-06 0.16 Member That was Rod Blum, who won a second term representing a northeast Iowa Mark Sanford, SC-01 8.70 district by 7.7 percentage points on Election Day. Blum, who wants to shrink Justin Amash, MI-03 12.50 the government, ban abortion and scale Randy Weber, TX-14 back regulation of businesses, seems a bit 3.98 conservative for the district. It voted twice Mark Meadows, NC-11 -0.99 for Barack Obama and was previously represented by a Democrat in the House, Scott DesJarlais, TN-04 -11.07 Bruce Braley, who lost his 2014 Senate bid to Republican Joni Ernst, freeing up the Bill Posey, FL-08 9.85 seat for Blum. Scott Perry, PA-04 10.62 But the votes last fall show that Trump’s threat could be hollow. He won the district, Mo Brooks, AL-05 0.17 but by a lesser margin than Blum did. Jim Jordan, OH-04 2.38 Of the recalcitrant Freedom Caucus mem- bers, the one who most underperformed Raúl R. Labrador, ID-01 -1.94 Trump was Republican Scott DesJarlais, who won a fourth term representing a Andy Harris, MD-01 9.96 south-central Tennessee district by 30 Warren Davidson, OH-08 points, while Trump romped there, by 41. 7.28 Still, it’s possible that a credible primary Paul Gosar, AZ-04 2.75 challenger could make life difficult for DesJarlais, an anti-abortion representa- Je Duncan, SC-03 7.79 tive who remains best known for having Louie Gohmert, TX-01 2.82 encouraged a former mistress to have an 74.50 abortion, and for the salacious records of Jody Hice, GA-10 his divorce, which revealed that his first wife had two. Winning margins 0 20 40 60 80 100% pts. Source: Roll Call reporting, Daily Kos By Shawn Zeller, [email protected] CQ | APRIL 24, 2017 13 .