Main Street Caucus Republicans are cozying up to President-elect Donald Trump, as the 80-member group seeks to expand their influence this Congress.
The caucus has been working behind the scenes to grow their relationships with Trump allies and are determined to be on the frontlines of advancing his legislative agenda through the House.
Main Street leaders — Reps. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) and Mike Flood (R-Neb.) — met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend to discuss his reconciliation strategy and policy goals. Trump told the group he will need their help for any legislative negotiations and recognized the House’s slim majority, according to people in the room.
“Main Street members are team players,” Flood told us. “We are working hand in glove with the White House. They are relying on our counsel.”
Making inroads: While the House Freedom Caucus has traditionally been viewed as the Trumpiest group on the Hill, the more pragmatic Main Street Caucus is positioning itself as his new right hand.
The group made a decision to coordinate with Trump World at the start of the 2024 campaign cycle. Trump ended up endorsing several Main Street members and didn’t publicly go after Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), just one of two House Republicans left who voted to impeach Trump in 2021.
Trump did, however, endorse a primary challenger to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who also voted to impeach Trump. But we’re told Main Street members secured a commitment from Trump that he wouldn’t attack the group for helping Newhouse.
Between the start of the cycle and now, Main Street leaders have held several calls with Trump allies and regularly talk to Trump congressional liaisons James Braid and Jeff Freeland, who met with the group earlier this month.
Dusty Johnson also took the lead on a bill that would authorize Trump’s desire to purchase the Panama Canal. The caucus chair told us he spoke with Trump’s team about the legislation.
Not to mention, Dusty Johnson also inserted himself into the standoff over the speakership vote earlier this month. Both he and Flood helped to work over dissenters on the House floor, and Dusty Johnson joined members in a private room where the holdouts spoke to Trump by phone before flipping their votes to Speaker Mike Johnson.
Embracing MAGA: While Main Street leadership represents safe Republican districts, the group is also home to politically vulnerable members.
In a previous Congress, these members may have worked to distance themselves from Trump, but with his strong performance in November, even members in purple districts are tying themselves to the president-elect. Still, there could be a risk in being so closely aligned with Trump.
“We have a few members from New York and New Jersey, and Trump also overperformed in those states,” Dusty Johnson said. “Those members are not looking to run away from Trump.”
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), a Main Street member, was an early endorser of Trump, while Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) signed onto a bill by firebrand Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” — an idea Trump floated during a news conference last week.
And while Main Street is known as more of a serious governing group of members on the Hill, the group’s leadership said it eschews any association with the idea of being centrist.
“We are not a moderate or middle-of-the-road swing district group,” Bice said. “We have very, very conservative members that are focused on conservative wins.”