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The Incredible Shrinking Freedom Caucus

The bare-knuckled Republican brawlers who once struck fear and trembling inside the House have become sidelined during the second Trump administration. Now, increasingly, they’re showing themselves out.

Chip Roy
The most recent to abandon the hard-liners is Rep. Chip Roy, the group’s latest intellectual and messaging guru, who announced this week that he’s running to succeed his former boss Ken Paxton as attorney general of Texas. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
August 24, 2025

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The House Freedom Caucus, once the most powerful Republican bloc on Capitol Hill, is rapidly losing altitude in Donald Trump’s second term. For years, the coalition of far-right conservatives held Washington hostage with its no-compromise, scorched-earth tactics. But the G.O.P. largely answers to Trump these days. And the Freedom Caucus, plagued by infighting and diminished influence, appears to be in terminal decline. Nearly a fifth of its roughly three dozen members are running for other offices, or considering doing so.