The House of Representatives under new Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson managed to pass a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open. But the GOP needed hundreds of Democrats to make it work.
House Freedom Caucus members objected, just as they had to the ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s efforts to get the House to work. In Pennsylvania, one Democrat is tired of seeing an intransigent minority — the Freedom Caucus — holding such outsize power. And this is a Democrat who usually doesn’t get tired.
So Mike O’Brien, former Top Gun fighter pilot and Marine, is taking on Freedom Caucus chair Scott Perry, the “far-right extremist and January 6th ringleader” — O’Brien’s description — in Pennsylvania’s purple 10th District.
O’Brien predicts, with the confidence of a Top Gun fighter, that Perry is going down, saying “I will defeat him.”
Scott Perry is the Chair of the Freedom Caucus.
— Mike O’Brien (@MikeOBrienforPA) November 14, 2023
He is the cause of the dysfunction in Washington.
Next year, I will defeat him. Spread the word.
O’Brien makes the case that he fought for democracy overseas for 20 years and that “we need more of that at home,” insinuating that the Freedom Caucus and especially Perry are engaged in anti-democratic behavior, attacking rather than defending America.
Rep. Perry also boasts a military background. He is a retired U.S. Army National Guard brigadier general who earned a Master’s Degree from U.S. Army War College. Also a pilot, Perry flew 44 combat missions in Iraq.
[Note: Freedom Caucus members have been resistant to compromise, but insist they stand on principle in their aim to reduce government spending, which is their primary — but not sole — rationale for legislative intransigence. They would say they are defending America by attacking the debt.]
O’Brien writes on X: “Scott Perry is vulnerable and Pennsylvania’s 10th is up for grabs.”
O’Brien’s campaign announcement from September below:
As a Marine & TOPGUN Fighter Pilot, I spent 20 years defending democracy overseas.
— Mike O’Brien (@MikeOBrienforPA) September 6, 2023
We need more of that at home, right now.
That’s why I’m running for Congress in #PA10. To defeat Jan 6th ringleader Scott Perry & deliver for hard-working PA families like the one I grew up in. pic.twitter.com/Pq1hMr45bm