Freedom Caucus

The Freedom Caucus is a group of lawmakers within the U.S. House of Representatives made up of the most conservative wing of the Republican Party’s congressional members. The caucus, an outgrowth of the 2009 Tea Party movement, represents a shift toward more ideologically driven and less compromise-oriented politics within Congress. Among the Freedom Caucus’s claims to fame are its stalwart allegiance to Pres. Donald Trump and the MAGA movement and its role in engineering the departures of two Republican speakers of the House.

Established in January 2015, the Freedom Caucus is known for its staunch right-wing positions on fiscal and social matters, including government spending, immigration, and LGBTQ rights.

Taking down a speaker

The no-compromise approach that would come to be a hallmark of the Freedom Caucus was first prominently displayed in September 2015, when the caucus played a pivotal role in the resignation of then House Speaker John Boehner. After leaving office, Boehner described the Freedom Caucus’s disposition to Vanity Fair, saying:

They can’t tell you what they’re for. They can tell you everything they’re against. They’re anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. That’s where their mindset is.

Nonetheless, the caucus’s ability to sway House leadership elections and legislative priorities quickly established it as a power center within the GOP. In its early years, the House Freedom Caucus focused on fiscal conservatism, seeking to limit government spending and supporting shutting down the federal government to achieve its goals. It also championed repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and implementation of stricter immigration policies.

Who is in the Freedom Caucus?

The caucus does not publish a list of its members, and membership is reported to be by invitation only. But some members have made their affiliations public, including Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. In 2023 Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia became the first member to be voted out of the Freedom Caucus, after she had a public dispute with Boebert on the House floor. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has identified himself as an “admirer” of the group.

The rise of Donald Trump within the Republican Party began to shift the caucus’s ideology. Initially, the Freedom Caucus was not uniformly supportive of Trump; his populist, less ideologically pure approach to conservatism was at odds with its more traditional conservative views. Yet, as Trump’s influence within the party grew, the Freedom Caucus began to align more closely with him. This shift toward a more Trump-centric ideology was marked by a departure from some of its earlier staunch fiscal conservatism.

The caucus’s members, who had previously been vocal critics of government spending and debt during the administration of Pres. Barack Obama, were less outspoken about such issues during Trump’s tenure, even as the federal deficit continued to grow. The caucus’s hard-line stance on immigration aligned with Trump’s policies.

According to analysis from the Pew Research Center, the Freedom Caucus was almost unanimous in opposing the January 2021 certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Of the 40 members identified as Freedom Caucus members or its strong allies, 38 objected at least once to the counting of electoral votes for Biden.

Taking down a speaker–again

In January 2023 Republicans, who had held on to a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections, got to choose the speaker of the House. Despite Kevin McCarthy’s being the ranking leader, 18 members of the Freedom Caucus voted against him in the first round of balloting. It took 14 more ballots and significant concessions from McCarthy to the Freedom Caucus for him to eventually prevail and become speaker, in January 2023.

But, when McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats in September to avoid a government shutdown, the Freedom Caucus felt betrayed and exacted its revenge by moving to oust McCarthy. For the first time in U.S. history, a speaker of the House of Representatives was voted out of office.