One of the Good Guys

Back in 2010, he was one of Jim DeMint’s recruits to run for the Senate. The establishment fought him, but he won the primary. His state Republican Party, however, had melted down and collapsed with several clunker candidates, including a terrible gubernatorial nominee. He lost, but outperformed every other Republican.

Then he ran for Congress. His record speaks for itself, and he is the sort of candidate conservatives have long wanted—a fighter who stands on principles, putting sound policies over personalities.

His Heritage Action lifetime scorecard is 91%.

The Club For Growth rates him with a lifetime score of 98%.

CPAC gives him a lifetime rating of 97%.

But he is leaving Congress because Ken Buck has failed to dance like a chained monkey with cymbals for a base that wants entertainment instead of wins. The clown chorus of conservatism is vilifying a guy who has consistently voted for the conservative side over 90% of the time.

Buck beat lymphoma then beat Vic Meyers in 2014 in a congressional fight. He proceeded to win re-election as a dogmatic conservative regularly.

During Trump’s tenure in office, he voted for the tax cuts, but against the massive COVID spending.

He opposed the bipartisan effort to jack up the debt ceiling in 2023 — being one of only 4 Republicans to oppose it. He was one of only 71 Republicans to vote against the supposed “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” that jacked up the debt ceiling through 2025.

But Buck isn’t a clown. He is a serious guy. He actually wants to head off the fiscal cliff we are about to go over. He wants to help our allies and secure our border. He has no time for the performance art the base insists on. So he opposed impeaching Biden and Mayokas, considering both wastes of time and about policy differences, not actual high crimes and misdemeanors as the constitution demands. And the Senate will never convict them.

He also refuses to pretend the 2020 election was stolen.

For the crimes of not telling the base the lies it wants to hear and performing in the clown show so many want, Buck has been vilified, lied about, attacked, and repeatedly insulted by the keyboard warriors of the right.

So he’s done.

I don’t blame him. Instead of fighting for principles, the GOP is engaged in symbolic acts that will amount to nothing. Biden nor Mayorkas will be convicted in impeachment, but the GOP will be distracted by both and lose focus on the policy issues that matter.

Instead of attacking the man, the GOP and its keyboard warriors should be wondering why it is a man who bats so close to a thousand for them on so many issues has decided to wash his hands of Congress now.

Ken Buck is one of the good guys. In 2010, I went out to Colorado to do events for him with conservatives. In 2014, I went back out to knock on doors for his primary. He and his family suffered innumerable attacks as he ran repeatedly as a conservative against the GOP establishment. That the clown chorus of the conservative movement would now attack the man who put more points on the board for conservatism than any of them suggests the conservative movement has gotten comfortable losing so long as they get clicks.

In a small bit of historical irony, Buck is leaving in 2024. At the time, nationally, the GOP looks like the Colorado GOP of 2010. That year, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, Dan Maes, got just 11.14% of the vote. Tom Tancredo ran as a third-party candidate, getting over 36% of the vote. Maes and the GOP infighting cost Buck his Senate race. Buck got 46.4% of the vote to Democrat Michael Bennett’s 48.08%. The Colorado GOP had descended into infighting and purity claims, and Buck never compromised his convictions and received more votes than any other Republican in the state.