Does Roy Blunt’s retirement signal the end of the old GOP?

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt is the latest Republican to announce he will not be running for reelection in 2022. The retirements of Blunt and a number of his Republican colleagues may signal a win for Trump-era Republicans looking to gain more power within the party.

Recent election results and slew of retirement announcements appear to have signaled that the Republican Party is in the midst of something like an identity crisis.

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt is the latest Republican to announce he will not be running for reelection in 2022. The retirements of Blunt and a number of his Republican colleagues may signal a win for Trump-era Republicans looking to gain more power within the party.

Roy Blunt has spent the last 26 years in Congress as a high-ranking member of the GOP. He is considered the fourth highest ranking Republican in the Senate and serves on a number of committees.

“I felt good about getting elected, but what I felt less good about was whether I wanted to go from 26 years in the Congress to 32 years in the Congress and maybe eliminate the other things I might get a chance to do,” he told reporters after his announcement.

Blunt is part of the old guard of the Republican Party, members of whom had previously been willing to work with others across the aisle. His announcement follows similar statements from GOP Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Rob Portman of Ohio.

In a press release, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, “Senator Blunt’s announced retirement will be a loss for the Republican conference and the entire Senate. In just 10 years in this body, he’s quickly become a true leader, a policy heavyweight, and a driving force behind both key conservative victories and essential bipartisan work.”

Bipartisanship, as it stands, is becoming rarer and rarer in a society fraught with political finger-pointing and little to no cooperation between parties. The most recent COVID-19 relief package is an example of the disconnect between the parties. Even Blunt, who in December encouraged Congress to act fast to address COVID relief, voted against what he labeled a “Partisan spending package.”

Though this move may not be directly tied to pushback against former President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, many political analysts believe Blunt is another casualty for McConnell-era Republicans. In his time as president, Trump garnered support from Blunt for the most part, but the senator wasn’t afraid of criticizing Trump for his actions involving the riots in Capitol Hill on January 6.

Though he did not vote to impeach the former-president for his role leading up to the riots, Blunt criticized Trump directly. He told CBS’ Face the Nation that the president’s actions were “clearly reckless” and warned that the president’s behavior in the last 10 days of his presidency should be “what you’d expect from the leader of the greatest country in the world.”

There is still a strong tug of war taking place within the Republican Party and these announcements may result in what will potentially be tough primary battles between far-right, pro-Trump Republicans and more establishment Republicans whose politics are similar to those of Blunt and McConnell.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump announced he would not be forming a new party, claiming, “We have the Republican Party. We are going to unite. It will be stronger than ever before.”

Trump still maintains the support of a majority of Republicans. In a straw poll at the conference, 68% of attendees want the former president to run again. Though this is a significant majority, it pales in comparison to his popularity among Republicans when he was president. During his time in office, his approval rating among Republicans routinely hovered in the 80s and 90s.

Former Republican aide Antonia Ferrier, who worked with Blunt and McConnell in the past, distinguishes between today’s members of the GOP.

“There are two kinds of politicians in Washington,” she told The New York Times, “those who want to make a point, and those who want to make a difference. Senator Blunt always worked to make a difference.”

The loss of Blunt and other senators would be strongly felt, she added.

“There is no question that his departure, on top of those like Senators Alexander and Shelby, leaves a hole of those who know how to forge bipartisan legislative deals.”

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