After more than a decade at the center of GOP politics on Capitol Hill, the House Freedom Caucus is suddenly confronting an unsettled future.<\/p>\n

Several of the hard-right bloc\u2019s most prominent members are leaving Congress next year after seeking higher office \u2014 including a former chair, Rep. Andy Biggs<\/a> of Arizona, and several media-friendly voices such as Reps. Chip Roy<\/a> of Texas, Byron Donalds<\/a> of Florida and Ralph Norman<\/a> of South Carolina, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re losing a lot of talent \u2014 there’s no doubt about it,\u201d Rep. Eli Crane<\/a> of Arizona said. \u201cSo it’s just kind of like a next-man-up mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But which man is very much in question. The current chair, Rep. Andy Harris<\/a> of Maryland, is term-limited, and a new generation of combative ultraconservatives is ready to step in just as the caucus comes to terms with a potentially changing role on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

The group will be facing twin challenges \u2014 a potential shift to a Democratic House majority, which has historically made the caucus less pivotal, and the looming transition to a Republican Party without a President Donald Trump, who has been an animating force<\/a> for most of its members.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross the country, people know who the Freedom Caucus is,\u201d said Rep. Clay Higgins<\/a> of Louisiana. \u201cThe next couple of years is going to be important for the caucus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has reinvented itself<\/a> in the past, with new leaders emerging as old members move on. Donalds recalled when former chair Mark Meadows of North Carolina departed for the White House in Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re like, \u2018Well, what’s going to be the future of HFC?\u2019 And in came Chip Roy, in came a Byron Donalds,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cWe just kind of kept it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only founding member<\/a> still serving in the House is Rep. Jim Jordan<\/a> of Ohio, who could make a play for minority leader<\/a> if Republicans lose the majority in November \u2014 further scrambling the caucus\u2019 historic role as a hard-right vanguard.<\/p>\n

Harris will remain a member, as will fellow former chair Scott Perry<\/a> of Pennsylvania \u2014 if he can win what\u2019s expected to be a competitive general-election race. Veteran members such as Reps. Michael Cloud<\/a> and Keith Self<\/a> of Texas will also be influential.<\/p>\n

But a number of relatively obscure members are ready to make moves and become the new faces of the hard right in the House.<\/p>\n

Eric Burlison<\/h4>\n
$\"Rep.$ <\/p>\n
Rep. Eric Burlison<\/a> of Missouri is in his second term but has shown an unmistakable thirst to be at the center of the action since arriving in the House. Currently an HFC board member, Burlinson said he is considering running to be the next chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou obviously have to be selected by your peers, and that would be the greatest honor,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThere’s no one I respect more than the people that are members of HFC.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spent over a decade in the Missouri statehouse before heading to Congress, after working as a software consultant. Last summer he was a vocal member pushing for the full release of the Epstein files and has become a leading Republican pushing for more information on UFOs.<\/p>\n
Burlison noted that a future chair will be inheriting a nationally recognized Freedom Caucus \u201cbrand\u201d that includes a plethora of state-level and local groups<\/a> that have adopted the name. He said the original HFC should look at ways to \u201cleverage\u201d that brand but also protect it from being adopted by groups that aren\u2019t in line with its conservative vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to kind of protect our image,\u201d he said. \u201dSo I think we need to get that figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Clyde<\/h4>\n
$\"Rep.$ <\/p>\n
Rep. Andrew Clyde<\/a> of Georgia has managed to amass significant power by Freedom Caucus standards by winning seats on the Appropriations and Budget committees, which have allowed him to push for conservative positions<\/a> on those influential panels.<\/p>\n
Clyde, another board member, said in an interview he had not yet thought about running for chair but noted that \u201cyou don\u2019t have to be the chairman to have outsized influence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that while the group is losing some high-profile members, the president\u2019s conservative agenda has attracted several likely incoming members to the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re seeing some folks that have not supported the Freedom Caucus before that are coming on board to support the House Freedom Caucus,\u201d Clyde said. \u201cSo I think you’ll see [an] even greater presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Gill<\/h4>\n
$\"Rep.$ <\/p>\n
Rep. Brandon Gill<\/a> of Texas, a freshman and the youngest sitting House Republican, is already seen as a rising star inside the House GOP. He has said he wants to emulate Jordan<\/a>and has a seat on Judiciary, the committee his governing idol chairs.<\/p>\n
Gill has made a name for himself through provocative social media posts, regular appearances on Fox News and splashy legislative moves such as seeking to impeach James Boasberg, the federal judge who ruled against some of Trump\u2019s deportations last year.<\/p>\n
He does not, however, break with GOP leaders as often as some other Freedom Caucus members and could encounter internal doubts as to whether he\u2019d be willing to play internal hardball in the same way as prior chairs.<\/p>\n

Clay Higgins<\/h4>\n
$\"Rep.$ <\/p>\n
Higgins is one of the more senior Freedom Caucus members \u2014 and one of the more controversial. The former sheriff has been a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and he was the only lawmaker to oppose the release<\/a> of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n
Also currently a board member, he said in an interview he has not ruled out seeking the caucus chair post. But he also said he was \u201cnot interested in campaigning\u201d for the job and would like to see a \u201cpeaceful transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higgins did boast having \u201ca pretty solid reputation within the caucus as a thoughtful conservative\u201d and is hoping the group focuses more on policymaking in its next iteration rather than obstructing leadership prerogatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re either going to go deeper into being a meaningful, effective conservative faction for the entire country, or we could bounce in the other direction and be more like protesters in the parking lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Andy Ogles<\/h4>\n
$\"Rep.$ <\/p>\n
Rep. Andy Ogles<\/a> of Tennessee has been a controversy magnet in the wider political sphere \u2014 known for a long-running campaign finance investigation that was recently dropped<\/a> by the Justice Department and a series of offensive public statements on Muslims, immigrants and other groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n
But inside the Freedom Caucus, he has emerged as a serious force over two terms, with his name floated for chair even before the end of his first term. He did not rule out running for chair or another caucus leadership position in a recent interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I care about is winning,\u201d Ogles said, referring to the caucus agenda. \u201cIf I’m better in a second or tertiary role, that’s what I’ll do to make sure we deliver on the president’s agenda. If that means I’m the chairman, then so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ogles said the upcoming turnover represents a good opportunity to renew and potentially rethink how the group operates: \u201cWe’re going into the presidential. Sometimes you need fresh ideas, fresh faces.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After more than a decade at the center of GOP politics on Capitol Hill, the House Freedom Caucus is suddenly confronting an unsettled future. Several of the hard-right bloc\u2019s most prominent members are leaving Congress next year after seeking higher office \u2014 including a former chair, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, and several media-friendly voices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}