Hutchinson, Kan. (AP) – Rep. Tim Huelskamp has been a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment since his election to Congress amid the tea party wave of 2010, and his clashes with former House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders helped get him booted from the House Agriculture Committee.
That proved costly for the third-term congressman on August 2, as he lost the GOP nomination to continue representing Kansas’ largely rural 1st District to Roger Marshall, a political newcomer who had the backing of powerful farming and business groups.
The contest was unusual because GOP primary challengers usually accuse incumbents of being insufficiently conservative. Marshall, an obstetrician from Great Bend, is the heavy favorite to win in November – he’ll only face an independent challenger, as the Democrats aren’t fielding a candidate.
The primary contest, which Marshall won with 56.5 percent of the vote, became a proxy battle between GOP conservatives and pragmatists. The anti-tax Club for Growth spent $400,000 to help Huelskamp and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus campaigned for him. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Ending Spending Action Fund, which wants to curb federal expenditures, spent big dollars against him.
Marshall cast Huelskamp as too unyielding and combative, saying his clashes with Boehner and others had hurt the district. After Huelskamp lost his seat on the Agriculture Committee in 2012, farm groups turned against him, and many voters saw it as a crucial issue in their farming state.
Huelskamp also spent his time as a Kansas representative attacking the LGBT community supporting a federal marriage amendment that would impose a national ban on same-sex marriages, lashing out at the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling and introducing legislation that would prohibit gay marriages from taking place on military installations.
Huelskamp supported “traditional marriage” group National Organization for Marriage, speaking at its rallies.
Huelskamp, who got 43.5 percent of the vote, blamed his loss on $3 million of super PAC money that went to support his opponent.
“Half-truths and smears were spread by billionaires that bought a seat in Kansas,” said Heulskamp, who is from the small southwestern Kansas community of Fowler.
Both candidates raised more than $700,000 for their campaigns – a healthy sum for Kansas – but Marshall loaned his campaign more than $280,000. Interest groups also spent more than $2.7 million on the race, with Marshall benefiting significantly more.
With no Democrat running, Marshall will run in November against independent Alan LaPolice, a farmer and educator from Clifton who ran for the GOP nomination in 2014 and lost a closer-than-expected race against Huelskamp.
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