Republican Main Street Partnership

Dissolution of the Republican Main Street Caucus

In the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections, the Democratic Party won a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. The Democrats gained a net total of 41 seats. This total was their largest gain of House seats in an election since the 1974 elections.^[3]

On November 28, 2018, the Republican Main Street Caucus met with the Republican Main Street Partnership to ask why the partnership's super PAC had left $722,000 of its funds unspent. The partnership's chief executive officer, Sarah Chamberlain, said that it had spent $6 million on 2018 campaigns and set aside the remaining $722,000 for 2020. Members of the caucus expressed concern that Chamberlain's compensation was 20 percent of the partnership's operating expenses.^[3] The following month, the caucus voted unanimously to suspend political activity with the partnership until an independent audit of the partnership's governance could be conducted. The partnership declined to be audited.^[3] An NPR story about the turmoil involving the partnership led to litigation.^[5]

The caucus members voted to dissolve the caucus in February 2019.^[3]

Re-formation of the Republican Main Street Caucus

By 2021, the Republican Main Street Caucus had reformed.^[5] As of 2023, it had once again become one of the major Republican caucuses in the House of Representatives. The caucus identifies itself as a group of pragmatic conservatives. It is affiliated with the Republican Main Street Partnership.^{[citation needed]} The caucus has also been described as "centrist"^[11] and "mainstream".^[12]

Shift away from centrist Republicanism

According to an article published in the New York Times in March 2024, the organization seems to be moving away from its centrist politics. "The Republican Main Street Partnership ...directed half a million dollars...to defeat Representative Bob Good, a hard-right lawmaker from Virginia, making an unusual push to oust a sitting Republican member of Congress. The move [wa]s notable... because the candidate it [wa]s backing — John J. McGuire, a former member of the Navy SEALs and an election denier who has pledged fealty to former president Donald J. Trump and promised to bring a "biblical worldview" to Congress — bears so little resemblance to the kind of moderate Republican the Main Street Partnership was founded to support."^[13]

Caucus Chairs