Nothing in American politics happens in a vacuum.
That includes the surprise retirement announcement by Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman on Monday. Portman’s retirement is rightly understood as simply the latest piece of evidence that being a so-called establishment Republican — or, really — anything but a die-hard Trump Republican — is no fun at all. «Congress is no place for a sensible Republican anymore,» tweeted Brendan Buck, a former top aide to speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, in the wake of the Portman news. It’s hard to argue against Buck’s point. In October 2020, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who, like Portman, had developed a reputation in the Senate as a pragmatist, announced he wouldn’t run again in 2022.
