(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day: David Schweikert- 2023 Update [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-05 On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, David Schweikert, a former real estate vulture capitalist arch-conservative who consistently votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood, fails to understand how the debt ceiling works, referred to the 2013 Government Shutdown as "my idea of fun", and was once recorded on video high-fiving Rep. Ben Quayle on the floor of the house after denying a pay increase to active duty soldiers fighting the War on Terror. If that isn't tacky enough, he also showed a lack of character when he then turned around after redistricting and ran against Quayle in the 2012 GOP Primary in Arizona's 6th District, instead of the 5th, because he preferred how gerrymandered it was compared to where he started. Schweikert managed to defeat Quayle in part by running campaign ads that insinuated he was bisexual, and as a result, the rest of the Congressional delegation from Arizona has turned their backs on him, and John Boehner removed him from all his committee assignments because, as one GOP staffer said of Schweikert, he's "one of the most egregious ***holes in the party". This is what his OWN party thinks of him. Democrats don't disagree, and certainly unions don't either, with Schweikert having compared them to Nazis, saying, "Goebbels would be proud of them." Schweikert’s relationship with those constituents has soured, as he has dodged town halls and seen constituents host ones with him in absentia, and his home office in his district has responded to those who brought cookies and hoped to set up meetings with him... by calling the police and trying to have them arrested. For sharing baked goods, apparently. He was fund-raising in 2018 by claiming Democratic organizations in his district who want to flip his seat are "inciting violence" and "setting cars on fire". Big surprise, that was not based in reality, unless maybe you get your news from Alex Jones, in which case you aren't based in reality anyway. Under the prior electoral map of Arizona, Schweikert's district had been one of the more conservative in the state to help him win re-election in 2018 with only 55% of the vote over Anita Malik, after talking down to Malik and telling her that “87 is more than 84”, during their debate leading her to snap back, “Yes, I know 87 is larger than 84, so thank you for that condescension.” In 2020, he hung on again, but with only 52% of the vote against Dr. Hiral Tipirneni in spite of the fact that he was forced to admit to 11 ethics violations in his attempts to win office in the first place, most of which included a refusal to diagnose loans and campaign contributions along the way. So this insipid wanker is back in DC, doing things like this: David Schweikert is keeping keeping his fingers crossed on what the new Congressional map looks like in 2020, because his district has trended more Democratic over the past two election cycles, and for whatever reason, he has always trended further right. He has, however, been oddly quiet since talking to the local press asked why he voted for the objection to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in the 2020 election, and he claimed that he had been shown an"entire three, four-inch binder of the fact tree, and they built a great argument on the fact tree." But that is, of course, bulls***, and we know everyone in the GOP caucus was well aware Trump’s “Big Lie” was only that. Schweikert surprised many by leaving the House Freedom Caucus in 2023, but his reasons… are strange. He claims that it’s the Arizona state legislature’s version of the Freedom Caucus that has made him realize the group is “toxic”, but… it’s not like the DC version is filled with level-headed individuals. Whether this is David Schweikert realizing he’s toast in 2024, because he barely survived 2022 when Republicans were supposed to have a big advantage… Well, that would make more sense. But the fact that this guy, deemed “one of the biggest ***holes in the caucus” has survived for SEVEN terms is truly an indictment of GOP ideology. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/5/2197707/-Fanatical-Republican-Extremist-of-the-Day-David-Schweikert-2023-Update?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/