Republican senators pounded Ted Cruz over the weekend, lashing him for his procedural tactics and ultimately voting in large numbers against his immigration gambit.

Now, Cruz’s allies off Capitol Hill are looking for revenge.


Conservative outside groups view Saturday’s vote as the first salvo in the GOP v. GOP purity wars that they hope to reignite in the beginning of the new Congress and in the run-up to the 2016 Senate races, when 24 Republican senators will be on the primary ballots.

After being pummeled by the party establishment in the 2014 midterms, activist groups are looking at the fight over Cruz’s contention that the spending bill is unconstitutional as their first opportunity to regroup and reestablish their relevance as Senate Republicans prepare to take the majority next year.

“People’s votes may by themselves inspire folks to say: ‘I’m running against this guy or this girl,’” said Ken Cuccinelli, the president of the Senate Conservatives Fund. “I have a funny feeling that some people who weren’t thinking of running two weeks ago are thinking of running now.”

Seven of the 20 Republicans who voted against Cruz are up for reelection in two years, including Sens. Dan Coats of Indiana, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska. And 16 Republicans who are running again, such as Richard Burr of North Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio, joined the Texas freshman, a sign that many are well aware of ammunition that could be used against them in a GOP primary.

In an interview Monday, Cruz was unapologetic, pointing out that “just about every senator up for reelection in 2016” voted with him, saying he would battle his party’s leadership in February if it does not take a firmer line when Homeland Security Department funding lapses.

Republican senators were particularly incensed at Cruz over his procedural antics. After the party had a solid several weeks watching Democratic divisions on full display, Cruz — along with Utah Sen. Mike Lee — mounted a surprise legislative strategy that only seemed to backfire, while serving to deeply divide Republicans and turn the story line in the final days of the lame-duck session of Congress against them.

By demanding a vote on a constitutional point-of-order on a $1.1 trillion spending bill on the grounds that it improperly funded President Barack Obama’s immigration moves, Republicans were in a bind: Vote to kill a bill that must pass to keep the government open, or oppose the Cruz measure and be accused of supporting Obama’s “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants. Two dozen Republicans ultimately voted for the spending bill, and several took the unusual position of siding with Cruz to deem it unconstitutional but also approving the larger measure.

GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, a conservative who faces a potentially tough reelection in the swing state of Pennsylvania in 2016, was one of the 20 Republicans who voted against Cruz’s tactics, saying he would have preferred to have a stand-alone measure targeting the president’s decision to defer deportations to millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

“The point-of-order said that the segment of that [spending] bill was unconstitutional,” Toomey, who also voted for the spending bill, said Monday. “I don’t think the legislation was unconstitutional.”

Other Republicans who voted against the plan were more sharply critical. By effectively forcing the Senate to return to session Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took full advantage, beginning the parliamentary process on nearly two dozen nominees and easing their way for confirmation votes. On Monday, one of those controversial nominees was confirmed: Vivek Murthy as surgeon general, despite strong opposition from the GOP and National Rifle Association. GOP and Democratic leadership aides later said there was little chance all those nominations would be confirmed this year had it not been for the Cruz-Lee tactics.

“It’s no secret that none of us were happy about the tactics that he chose without at least having the courtesy to let us know that was what he planned to do,” said Coats, a Republican from Indiana running for reelection in 2016 who voted against Cruz and had to abruptly change weekend plans because of the conservatives’ moves. “We had met as a caucus, we had an agreement, we had an exit strategy to limit the number of nominations. And every member has the right to do what he did, but it would have been nice to know about it.”

Others who voted against the Cruz plan almost dared conservative groups to field a primary foe.

“I don’t have a primary,” said Kirk, a moderate Republican. “And from the poll data I’ve looked at, a primary opponent would be extraordinarily foolish to come against me.”

What’s happening on the GOP side is not unlike the deep divide among Democrats, who are struggling to find their footing as they return to the Senate minority and grapple with the rise of hardliners like Elizabeth Warren but also the need to cut deals with a Republican majority. In the last several days, there are signs that the senior lawmakers are resisting the push by the Cruz and Warren wings of their respective parties. In addition to the nearly half of Republicans who had split with Cruz, just 22 Democrats of the 55-member caucus voted with Warren against the omnibus spending bill after she spent days railing on the measure as too friendly to Wall Street.

“I think there’s a realignment, and after every election cycle – there’s a reordering of priorities and jockeying and that’s a part of it,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, a liberal Hawaii Democrat who backed the spending package. “But certainly after this particular election cycle, there’s more of it. And going into 2016 … many Democrats in the Senate have never been members of the minority.”

In the new Senate, more than half of the members will be serving for the first time as a member of the majority or minority parties, meaning senators and their allies off the Hill will have to find new ways to be relevant. For conservative groups, that means berating incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republicans running for reelection in 2016 if they begin to compromise with Democrats.

“It is a missed opportunity,” said Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action, the conservative group, referring to Saturday’s vote. “Conservatives will be paying very close attention to see if a Republican-controlled Congress will actually do what is necessary to stop Obama’s amnesty.”

In the interview, Cruz said while his party might get a pass on a procedural vote that never had any chance of passing in the Democratic Senate, he would hold McConnell and the rest of the caucus’ feet to the fire in February when Department of Homeland Security funding expires and GOP leaders have vowed to fight Obama on immigration.

“Sixty days from now we’ll know the answer as to whether leadership will follow through on their very public commitments,” Cruz said. “One of the benefits of the vote this weekend is most, if not all, of the senators that voted against the constitutional point of order have made it a point to clarify to reporters that on the substance, they believe the president’s executive amnesty is unconstitutional. That clarification is important going into this battle in January and February.”

While many Republicans have already been ramping up their reelections ahead of 2016, and the prospects of defeating a well-funded incumbent are always slim, even the potential of a primary threat tends to force lawmakers to stick closely to the ideological views of their base and potentially spend big money.

North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr was highly critical of Cruz’s strategy in the government shutdown fight last year, calling it the “dumbest idea” to try to defund Obamacare in a funding bill knowing that Obama would simply veto it. But this time, Burr was on board with Cruz’s attempts to derail the immigration funding in the must-pass spending measure, who ultimately voted for final passage of the spending deal.

“It was real simple: It was saying the president didn’t have the constitutional authority to do what he did,” said Burr, who is up for reelection in 2016 and could face a primary challenge. “I agree with [Cruz].”

Added Portman: “I just know from the start I was very upset by the president going around not just the Congress but, I think the American people. … It was a symbolic vote in that sense, and it was a way to make a statement.”

Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Marco Rubio of Florida, two senators up for reelection, are the only ones who voted for the comprehensive immigration bill last year but voted with Cruz on the point-of-order Saturday. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who is up for reelection, called his vote with Cruz a “statement, basically” against the president, even though he’s the senior GOP approriator.

Cuccinelli, the head of the conservatives group, signaled that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) could be two of his top two targets in 2016. While McCain voted against the Cruz measure, Moran supported it, though Cuccinelli’s group is targeting the Kansan for his role running the Senate GOP campaign committee that aided Sen. Thad Cochran in the Mississippi primary this year.

Asked to respond to the ire on the right, McCain said he voted against the Cruz plan because the omnibus is constitutional. He insisted it would do no more to motivate the right than any other vote.

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” McCain said. “I can’t do anything about that.”

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