On April 5, the U.S. House passed H.Res.831, to establish a Center for Democratic Resilience in NATO. Only 63 U.S. House members voted “no”. They are all Republicans.

Here is the roll-call vote. Among the 63 “no” votes were only 14 members from states in which independent voters could not vote in Republican primaries (Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania).

Many journalists routinely assert that closed primaries produce extreme politicians, whereas letting independents vote in primaries causes moderate politicians to be elected. This is not true; it has been rebutted in many political science studies.

This post does not take a position on whether H.Res.831 is good or bad policy. It merely points out that voting against strengthening democracy inside NATO is considered an “extreme” position, compared to the post-war consensus in the United States.

Betsy Johnson, an independent candidate for Governor of Oregon, has raised $5,100,000 for her campaign. According to this story, that is more than any other candidate for that office has raised so far. Johnson is a former Democratic State Senator.

Oregon last elected an independent governor in 1930, when Julius Meier won with 54.5% of the vote.

U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe was re-elected to the U.S. Senate from Oklahoma in November 2020. Normally his term would last until January 2027. But on February 28, 2022, he wrote a letter and said he will irrevocably retire from the Senate effective January 2023.

The Governor of Oklahoma then called a special election for his seat, to be held in November 2022. On April 1, an Oklahoma Republican, Stephen Jones, filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the Seventeenth Amendment does not permit any Governor to call a special election to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate until the vacancy exists. The Seventeenth Amendment says, “When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.” The lawsuit argues that nothing prevents Senator Inhofe from revoking his letter of resignation, so the special election might be a meaningless exercise.

Here is the brief in Jones v Stitt, w.d., 5:22cv-278. Jones argues he has standing as a voter, and he also has standing because he has asked the Governor to appoint him to the vacancy if and when it occurs.

Jones already asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to stop the special election, but that court refused to hear his case. Inhofe’s future actions must have been anticipated by the Oklahoma legislature, because in 2021 it passed an election law bill specifically authorizing special elections in case of either vacancy or irrevocable resignation. Jones argues that the very language of that new law shows he is correct, because it demonstrates that a vacancy and an irrevocable resignation are different things. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the news about the lawsuit.