With a MAGA win and a Squad loss, the political middle moves

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There must be some sort of larger takeaway in the fact that Rep. Lauren Boebert, among the most MAGA members of Congress, won a Republican primary in Colorado on Tuesday night, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a member of the progressive “Squad” from the Bronx, lost a Democratic primary to a more moderate candidate from Westchester County in New York.

Every House race is different, obviously, since all politics is local, according to the old saying. So it would be an oversimplification to say that Republicans moved more MAGA and Democrats moved more moderate based on these two unrelated races.

More MAGA or moderate?

And yet there’s evidence to support that general trend. Look no further than the two parties’ presidential candidates.

Former President Donald Trump personifies MAGA, and a large part of the Make America Great Again ethos he pushes is loyalty to him. President Joe Biden, on the other hand, effectively worked with Republicans to pass a bill to improve the nation’s infrastructure and has said he wants to work with Republicans on immigration reform. Many Republicans will tell you they don’t believe Biden.

There’s nothing moderate about either Boebert or Bowman, who occupy space on the fringe of their respective parties. Both were also seriously flawed candidates with problems that extend beyond policy. Boebert was kicked out of a theater last year for vaping and “causing a disturbance,” for instance. Bowman was charged last year with pulling a fire alarm in a House office building when there was no emergency.

Rather than face voters in the district she narrowly won two years ago, Boebert