Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is one of the growing number of battleground Republican candidates who have decided against attending next week’s inaugural Republican midterm convention in Dallas before November’s elections. “She won’t be at the…
Page A4From§Eachthe late evening edition — 31 August 2026
House Speaker Backs Congressman Facing Abuse Allegations While Fellow Republican Skips Party's Own Convention
As it ran on the front
You want to see how the party actually sorts its priorities, forget the platform, look at who they defend and who they let walk. The Speaker of the House comes out and backs a congressman's reelection bid — publicly, on the record — while that same congressman is sitting under abuse allegations. That's not silence, that's not 'no comment,' that's an active endorsement. Somebody decided that was worth the Speaker's name on it.
Same week, a different Republican — a sitting senator, somebody who's been in the room for every one of these votes for years — decides she's got somewhere else to be during her own party's midterm convention. Doesn't announce a boycott. Doesn't give a speech about it. Just isn't there. You don't skip your own team's pep rally because you're excited about the season.…
…(cont) Now put those two next to each other and tell me that's a coincidence. One end of the party is actively vouching for a guy with abuse allegations attached to his name. The other end is quietly making sure her name isn't anywhere near the room where that kind of thing gets celebrated. That's not two unrelated stories about two unrelated Republicans. That's the same party, the same week, showing you both directions its own members are running — some toward the guy with the allegations, some very deliberately away from the building.
Here's the part that should bother you more than either headline on its own: nobody had to say a word about why. The Speaker's endorsement is the statement. The senator's empty seat is the statement. Neither one of them needed a press release, because everybody in that party already knows exactly what the other one means, and they're all choosing sides without ever putting it in writing.
That's the con. They don't need to defend him out loud when backing him quietly does the same job — and they don't need to explain her absence either, because the absence already told you everything the convention program wouldn't.
“Backing the guy with abuse allegations while your own senator skips the pep rally isn't two random headlines, that's the party's actual gut check on where its votes still come from. Watch what leadership defends, not what they say in the platform, that's the real map of who's disposable and who isn't.”
“The Speaker's endorsement reflects continued support for a duly elected member facing unproven allegations, and the senator's scheduling conflict is simply a scheduling conflict, unrelated to any broader - any broader anything, honestly, it's just a calendar thing, that's the position.”
The receipts
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) affirmed he is standing behind Rep. Max Miller’s (R-OH) reelection campaign despite allegations of domestic violence and child abuse. When asked Monday if he supported Miller, Johnson said “yes,” and that…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.