U.S. President Donald Trump looks down as he participates in a call with service members. (REUTERS)
A House Republican from one of America’s reddest states privately confessed that President Donald Trump’s unpopularity and pointless executive actions were hurting the party and endangering safe Republican seats like hers in the upcoming midterms.
“The challenge that we have is that we have to get over the narrative that ‘I don’t like this guy, so I’m going to vote for the Democrat,’” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), according to audio obtained by The Bulwark. “Because I’m telling you right now, I’m hearing it already.”
“And what happens is that’ll impact me because . . . two things will either happen,” Bice continued in the recording. “They’re going to vote for the Democrat and they may split [the] ticket and vote for me and a few others, or — this is my bigger fear right now — people don’t go vote.”
The Bulwark reports Bice fessed up to her anxiety at a gathering of Republican students at Oklahoma State University on Thursday evening. The audio provided rare and very frank insight “into the gloom” some elected Republicans feel about the impending midterms, Bulwark said.
Bice also relayed a recent conversation she’d had with a Republican executive who described the president as draining.
“I was at a board meeting yesterday with a group, and one of the execs said to me, ‘I’m a Republican. I’ve been a Republican for a long time, but I have Trump fatigue.’ It’s a fair statement, you know?” Bice told the students.
Bulwark reports Bice to be “an unabashed Trump ally” who has “touted her support from the president and appears alongside him” at Oval Office events. A spokesman for Bice moved quickly to clean her comments in followup interviews.
“She was relaying a comment made by someone else and discussing the importance of Republicans turning out and voting for the entire ticket,” said campaign spokesman Wesley Harkins. “Congresswoman Bice strongly supports President Trump and his work to secure the border, rebuild our economy, strengthen our military, and put America First. She is proud to have his endorsement and looks forward to continuing to fight with the president to defeat the Democrat socialists. Any suggestion otherwise takes her comments out of context.”
Still, Bulwark reports Bice fretted about what she characterized as “significantly lower” Republican turnout in the state’s June primary, saying, “there’s a fear that people have sort of checked out, and I think that’s probably true in a lot of cases.”
“Republican turnout in Oklahoma’s June congressional primaries was down compared to the 2018 primaries,” writes Bulwark reporter Joe Perticone. “Bice’s district is considered solidly Republican, but not overwhelmingly so. It has an R+9 rating by the Cook Report, and Bice herself noted in the talk with the OSU Republicans that the urban areas within her district make it potentially more favorable to Democrats.”
