Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) are emerging as new champions of conservative populism at a time when many Republicans think former President Trump’s control of the party has ended.
Trump touted a new brand of Republican populism that appealed to many voters during the 2016 presidential election. While his popularity with Republican voters is on the decline, this group of conservatives is embracing the populism that worked so well for Trump in 2016.
Hawley has been at the forefront of the push to remake the Republicans from the party of corporate executives to the party of working men and women. “The Republican Party wants to be a party of the working class. […].
It is not the first time that Hawley has called on his party to engage workers more directly. He doubled down on that effort by calling for a change in leadership and voting against Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who is serving another term as Senate Republican leader.
“The old Republican Party is dead,” Hawley declared, arguing that it is time for Republicans to “forge something new, a party that truly represents the cultural backbone of this nation: working America.”
Ted Cruz, for his part, said: “I think one of the most important political changes of the last decade is that the Republicans have become a labor party. We are the party of working men and women. We are the party of truckers and steel workers. And we are the party of the workers of the railway union”.
Marco Rubio also announced his alignment with the rail workers early last week. “I will not vote for any deal that does not have the support of rail workers,” he said, adding: “Wall Street’s drive for efficiency has turned rail workers into little more than lines on a spreadsheet.” .
The proposal to give workers more paid sick days ended eight votes short of approval: 52 to 43. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who plans to run for governor of Indiana, and Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), a close Trump ally, also voted in favor.
The Senate was widely expected to vote to impose a labor agreement on rail workers to avoid a nationwide strike after the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of the measure, 290 to 137, on Wednesday. And he did, passing the measure 80-15.
Rubio then criticized his colleagues who voted overwhelmingly to force rail workers to accept a tentative labor agreement negotiated by the Biden administration that four unions had rejected.
“This is hard work. So, are we going to make life even more unpleasant? Are we going to send a message that once again those hardworking people who work with their hands in difficult conditions are going to get screwed? he said.
But rising conservative stars see in that speech the future of the Republican Party at a time when more working-class voters are voting for Republican candidates and more college-educated voters are voting for Democrats.
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