Will the Jan. 6 committee change any Republican minds? Watch Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran
The Jan. 6 committee comes to prime time on Thursday with the first in a series of made-for-television hearings aimed at persuading the American public — and, not incidentally, the Justice Department — that former President Donald Trump and his cronies corruptly conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
If you want to know whether the committee is successful, there’s one person to watch: Sen. Jerry Moran, the Kansas Republican.
That might come as a surprise to Moran’s constituents. More than the other Republican senators from the Kansas-Missouri region, he tends to fly under the radar. He lacks Roger Marshall’s frequent Fox News appearances, Josh Hawley’s fist-pumping MAGA notoriety or Roy Blunt’s accumulated power and gravitas.
Instead, Moran is known mostly for stolid legislative work on unglamorous issues like veterans affairs — and also for his Hamlet-like dithering on tough, high-profile issues. He just doesn’t like to make people mad.
That’s why it’s worth watching Moran as the Jan. 6 committee takes center stage.
Will the investigators’ presentation be so compelling that the senator is compelled to take a stand that risks the wrath of both Trump and Trump’s many supporters in the Kansas Republican Party? Or will business — and Moran — go forward quietly as usual?
Who knows? The senator has a mixed record.
Like a lot of established GOP politicians, Moran has tried to calibrate a careful approach that quietly signals discomfort with Trump’s antics without creating so much distance that his own political position is threatened.
Moran waffled in 2016 on whether he would vote for Trump against Hillary Clinton. “I never discuss who I vote for,” he told the Topeka Capital-Journal, but later issued a statement affirming his support for the GOP nominee.
In 2020, Moran was among the first Republicans to acknowledge that Joe Biden was the rightful winner of the presidential campaign — and that Trump was the loser. “Every indication that I know is that Joe Biden is the president-elect,” Moran said in late November of that year. (Mitch McConnell, then-GOP Senate majority leader, wouldn’t commit to that position for another three weeks.) And on Jan. 6 itself, Moran condemned the insurrectionist violence as “unacceptable and unpatriotic” before voting — unlike Hawley and Marshall — to certify Biden’s victory officially.
Kansas Republicans were outraged. The Clay County GOP voted to censure Moran. There was even talk that Trump-loving conservatives would mount a primary challenge to Moran, who is up for reelection this year.
What happened next is interesting. Moran voted against convicting Trump at the impeachment trial following the insurrection, but issued a statement declaring that “President Trump was wrong to continue to spread allegations of widespread fraud.” Two weeks later — shockingly, surprisingly — Trump endorsed Moran’s reelection and effectively foreclosed a primary campaign.
It’s complicated, isn’t it?
The Jan. 6 committee might not make much of a dent with its televised hearings. After all, we’ve known the broad outlines of the case against the former president from the start — Donald Trump lost the election, refused to concede, spread a bunch of false conspiracy theories that the election was stolen, plotted with his lawyers to overturn the state ballot counts, and ultimately urged his supporters to march on the Capitol. The committee can only fill in the details.
What’s more, it’s not clear that Americans care that much. A poll taken on the anniversary of the attack showed just 31% of voters said the insurrection will have an impact on their choices in future elections.
But Moran probably doesn’t need to worry about being primaried anymore. And he has occasionally taken stands at odds with his party. Remember his 2017 vote against the GOP plan to replace Obamacare? Moran has a recent history of both defending American democracy and embracing Trump. That probably isn’t sustainable. We’ll know the Jan. 6 committee is successful if Moran is forced to choose between the two.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Will the Jan. 6 committee change any Republican minds? Watch Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran."