Personality, Not Policy, Will Determine Top House Armed Services Republican – By Katie Bo Williams (Defense One) / Nov 20 2020
The pick may telegraph whether the GOP intends a cooperative or combative approach to the Biden administration.
The race to replace retiring Rep. Mac Thornberry, Texas, as the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, is heating up.
The leading contenders are Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Mike Rogers, R-Ala., both reliably conservative members of the panel. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., has also thrown his hat in the ring, but is seen as a distant long-shot.
Close watchers of the committee say that the race will hinge as much — if not more — on the personalities of the men vying for the role as it will on their policy platforms. Rogers is a prolific fundraiser with an affable Southern charm. Turner has a more aggressive style, as displayed by his prosecutorial questioning of witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment hearings in the House. He is well-respected, but not necessarily liked, by his colleagues in the House, sources familiar with the dynamics of the race say.
“This is an intensely personal race that the HASC hasn’t seen in the last couple of runs. In previous runs, the destiny was pretty well known going into the races, given seniority and record,” said one person familiar with the situation. Turner and Rogers, this person said, are “both fantastically capable gentlemen. This is really a question of technique and approach and personalities than it is substance.”
