GOP Rep. Ken Buck plans to challenge his party’s direction under Trump as he leaves the House

WASHINGTON – Rep. Ken Buck has had sufficient.

When the Colorado Republican announced this past week that he would no longer search reelection, he started with the form of grievance of Democratic insurance policies this is same old fare for a hard-line conservative. But then Buck grew to become his ire to fellow Republicans, spending maximum of the three-minute announcement video accusing them of being “obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.”

Buck’s scorched-earth method stuck few on Capitol Hill by means of wonder.

With a deadpan demeanor, an impartial streak and a background as a federal prosecutor, Buck has received nationwide prominence as a House Republican bored to death with Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election he misplaced to Democrat Joe Biden and the Trump allies in Congress who enlarge them. It’s a stand few others in the GOP are taking and is a outstanding flip that presentations simply how deeply Trump’s once-fringe lies about that race have settled into the Republican mainstream.

Buck incessantly seems on networks such as CNN and, without a plans to go away Congress ahead of the finish of his time period, he most likely might be a outstanding foil to Republicans right through his ultimate months in place of work. His political heresy extends to the impeachment inquiry into Biden, which Buck has pushed aside as baseless.

“Our nation is on a collision course with reality, and a steadfast commitment to truth — even uncomfortable truths — is the only way forward,” Buck stated in the video.

Yet under political force in Colorado, Buck determined there was once no future of him in Congress.

Trump celebrated Buck’s imminent departure, pronouncing on social media that the congressman “knew long ago he could never win against MAGA, so now he is, like some past and present, auditioning” for a community tv activity. “MAGA” is brief for the 2016 Trump marketing campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Buck is rarely the first GOP lawmaker to step clear of Capitol Hill in frustration lately. But in contrast to different outspoken House Republicans who grew alienated from their colleagues ahead of leaving place of work, such as former Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming or Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Buck hails from the far-right House Freedom Caucus, striking him at the middle of the conservative motion.

Nearly each week, Buck leaves the Capitol complicated to attend caucus conferences, the place lawmakers strategize about how to disrupt industry as same old in Washington. He has proposed drastic finances discounts, strict sanctions towards TikTok and cuts for academic subject material that teaches slavery was once central to the country’s founding.

Buck was once additionally among the eight Republicans who voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. as speaker and accused him of failing to practice thru on his promise to slash spending.

“The critical issue for me is to bend the spending curve and you do that with institutional changes,” Buck advised The Associated Press in September. “Nobody has been willing to change this place.”

While Buck in his 5 House phrases has aggressively driven coverage to the correct, he has concurrently resisted what he calls “a populist flavor in the party” that has ascended with Trump.

“Ken is a constitutionalist who tries to make good decisions based on principle,” stated Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a fellow caucus member. “I think he’s an important voice, and I’ll certainly miss him.”

Buck has publicly feuded with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a high-profile Trump ally who calls Buck a “CNN wannabe.” Buck has criticized how Greene and other Republicans have become public advocates for people charged in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“When I was teaching law school, I learned and taught certain constitutional principles,” Buck told a Denver radio show, referencing his time at the University of Denver. “When Marjorie Taylor Greene was teaching CrossFit, she learned a whole different set of values, evidently, because my idea of what this country should be like is based on the Constitution.” Greene was once a co-owner of CrossFit affiliate gym in Georgia.

Buck’s experience in constitutional law predates his time teaching law school. After completing a bachelor’s degree at Princeton University and a law degree at the University of Wyoming, Buck worked for then-Wyoming Rep. Dick Cheney, who was the top Republican on the committee investigating the Reagan administration for the Iran-Contra affair. Cheney, who is Liz Cheney’s father, eventually issued a minority report that argued that President Ronald Reagan had wide latitude to conduct foreign policy and described the president’s actions as “mistakes in judgment, and nothing more.”

Buck called Iran-Contra a “constitutional crisis” that impressed upon him the importance of Congress not overstepping its powers. He also said a different approach to politics ruled Washington in those days: Democratic and Republican lawmakers were genuinely friends and built trust that led to bipartisan achievements.

Buck later returned to the West and a law career that included directing the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office in Colorado. He departed the office after receiving a reprimand for remarks he made about a case to a defense attorney for gun dealers that undermined the prosecution. Buck was later elected as a district attorney in northeast Colorado.

Buck reentered national politics as the tea party gained prominence, and he ran against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in 2010. Buck lost, and Colorado, then a battleground state, has become increasingly dominated by Democrats.

In 2014, Buck made a comeback, winning a House district that spans the entire eastern third of the state, from ranch land to Denver suburbs.

During his five terms in Congress, Buck for a time held a spot on the powerful House Rules Committee, where he sat next to Liz Cheney. He also was the top Republican on the House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee. He gained a reputation as a strict conservative who would listen to Democrats and work with them on occasion.

“I’ve always found him to be incredibly straightforward, intellectually curious, willing to disagree without being disagreeable,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat who represents a district adjacent to Buck’s.

Buck formed an unlikely alliance with former Rep. David Cicilline when the Rhode Island Democrat was chairman of the antitrust panel. They managed to advance a series of bills that sought to diminish the power that tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google hold in the online market. Some bills were signed into law by Biden.

Cicilline said Buck defied the will of both Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who was the Judiciary Committee’s top Republican and is now the chairman, and McCarthy, who was the House Republican leader before becoming speaker, as Buck worked on the investigations into the tech companies.

“He has demonstrated that he does what he thinks is right, even if it means standing up to his own party leadership,” said Cicilline, who left office in May to head a nonprofit.

In recent weeks, Buck was at the center of moves against both McCarthy and Jordan. He provided a crucial vote to oust McCarthy. Then when hard-line conservatives made Jordan the Republican nominee for speaker, Buck voted against him. Alone among Republicans, Buck said he was opposing Jordan because he had not clearly stated that Biden won the 2020 election.

Buck stated opposing Jordan unleashed a wave of vitriol from Republican activists and led to him being evicted from a district place of work in Colorado.

This previous week, Trump referred to as Buck a “weak and ineffective Super RINO,” or Republicans In Name Only. The subsequent day, Buck testified about a legal effort in Colorado to ban Trump from the poll under the Constitution’s “insurrection clause.” True to shape, Buck’s stance defied simple categorization. He testified towards banning Trump from the election.

Buck stated the occasions of latest weeks confirmed him the House not allowed for affordable war of words.

“This is an actual honor to serve right here,” he said, “But it’s additionally a ache in the rear finish.”