三名众议院共和党人人投票弹劾唐纳德·特朗普，指控他煽动国会大厦骚乱将于周二进行初选在密歇根州和华盛顿州，这是前总统对共和党和共和党选民控制力的最新考验。
华盛顿的众议员Jaime Herrera Beutler和Dan Newhouse以及密歇根州的Peter Meijer都希望击退特朗普支持和推动的挑战者。这三个是10个众议院共和党人中的最后一个去年投票弹劾特朗普后，现在面对选民。
在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时，三人都为可能危及他们政治生涯的选择进行了辩护，而且他们没有回头。
“我做了我觉得我需要做的，”Herrera Beutler，一位六届国会女议员和强大的众议院拨款委员会的高级成员，告诉ABC新闻。
“我觉得这是宪法赋予的职责，”她补充道。“当你宣读你的就职誓言时，它说你将保护它，你将捍卫它。对我来说，不管是哪个党派，确保我对共和党人和民主党人持同样的标准是非常重要的。”
在周二的初选中，Herrera Beutler将面对资金雄厚的乔·肯特(Joe Kent)，这位前绿色贝雷帽(Green Beret)成员曾被特朗普鼓励竞选公职。肯特毫无根据地声称2020年总统选举受到操纵，特朗普随后的弹劾审判是一场骗局。
在特朗普的第二次参议院审判期间，Herrera Beutler因公开评论她当时与众议院共和党领袖凯文·麦卡锡的谈话而受到一些保守派的批评，她转述了她所说的加州共和党人告诉她的关于他在1月6日与特朗普互动的内容。
Herrera Beutler说，麦卡锡描述了他“恳求”特朗普停止国会大厦骚乱的失败。(麦卡锡后来表示，他1月6日与特朗普的通话“非常短暂”。)
民主党人试图寻求Herrera Beutler的证词，但满足于将她的评论纳入参议院审判的官方记录。
尽管麦卡锡的评论来来回回，这位少数党领袖似乎仍然支持这位女议员:从2021年3月到2022年3月，他的联合筹款委员会为她的连任竞选筹集了超过16万美元。
在接受美国广播公司采访时，Herrera Beutler没有说如果共和党人接管众议院，她是否会支持麦卡锡担任议长。虽然自弹劾投票以来，她基本上没有对特朗普或国会大厦骚乱发表评论，但埃雷拉·贝特勒也拒绝透露如果特朗普再次竞选总统，她是否会投票给特朗普。
“在接下来的24小时里，老实说，我唯一关注的事情就是我的比赛，”她说。“目前，2024年没有选举。2022年有一个。”
在整个州，纽豪斯面临一名民主党人和六名共和党人，包括前警察局长和共和党候选人洛伦·卡尔普(Loren Culp)，他拒绝在2020年与民主党州长杰伊·英斯利(Jay Inslee)的竞选中认输。
华盛顿在任者在竞选期间基本上避免提及他们弹劾特朗普的投票，而是选择关注当地问题。
“那是一年半以前。我已经说了一年多了。我感觉很好，我感觉很好，”纽豪斯上周在国会山告诉ABC新闻。
在密歇根州，在第一个国会任期刚刚开始10天就投票弹劾特朗普的梅耶尔，面临着特朗普政府前官员约翰·吉布斯，民主党人曾有争议地试图用一则将他与特朗普联系起来的广告来突显他，这一策略甚至一些民主党人也进行了抨击.
在投票弹劾特朗普的10名众议院共和党人中，有四人选择退休，一人以相当大的优势被击败，另一人是怀俄明州众议员利兹·切尼(Liz Cheney)，他正在领导众议院1月6日的调查工作，他所在的州在2020年以近44个百分点的优势支持特朗普，将于8月16日面对初选选民。
纽豪斯和埃雷拉·布特勒可能会在特朗普支持的初选中幸存下来，部分原因是华盛顿独特的投票系统。该州的初选将得票最多的两位候选人送进大选，不管他们属于哪个党派。
华盛顿州立大学政治学教授Travis Ridout告诉ABC新闻，这种类型的初选系统可能“对被认为温和的现任者有帮助”。
这可能会让密歇根州的梅耶尔面临最具挑战性的连任之路。他需要经受住来自Gibbs的直接挑战，以及在2020年人口普查后增加了更多民主党选民的地区与民主党人希拉里斯霍尔滕的大选斗争。
上周在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时，梅耶尔认为，他的选民需要在国会中有独立的声音，并且“有人会在关起门来说同样的话。”
“这就是我跑来提供的。这就是我在任时所做的，”他说。
“由于1月6日发生的事情，我投了一张非常艰难的票，然后看到许多人开始指责-投或退缩或找借口，”他说。“我不认为这是人民应得的。”
3 Republicans who impeached Trump vie to keep their seats in Tuesday's primaries
Three House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump and accuse him of inciting the Capitol riot are on primary ballots Tuesday in Michigan and Washington state -- the latest test of the former president's grip on the GOP and Republican voters.
Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse of Washington and Peter Meijer of Michigan all hope to fend off challengers endorsed and boosted by Trump. The three are among the last of the 10 House Republicans who after voting to impeach Trump last year now face voters.
In interviews with ABC News, all three defended the choice that could imperil their political careers -- and they haven't looked back.
"I did what I felt I needed to do," Herrera Beutler, a six-term congresswoman and senior member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, told ABC News.
"I felt like it was a constitutional duty," she added. "When you read your oath of office, it says you're going to protect it and you're going to defend it. And for me, irrespective of party, it was incredibly important to make sure I'd hold the same standard to a Republican as I would a Democrat."
In Tuesday's primary, Herrera Beutler will face the highly funded Joe Kent, a former Green Beret whom Trump encouraged to run for office. Kent has baselessly claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that Trump's subsequent impeachment trial was a sham.
During Trump's second Senate trial, Herrera Beutler drew criticism from some conservatives for publicly commenting on conversations she had at the time with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, relaying what she said the California Republican told her about his interactions with Trump on Jan. 6.
Herrera Beutler said McCarthy described unsuccessfully "pleading" with Trump to call off the Capitol rioters. (McCarthy later said his Jan. 6 call with Trump was "very short.")
Democrats tried to seek Herrera Beutler's testimony but settled for entering her comments into the official record of the Senate trial.
Despite that back-and-forth over McCarthy's comments, the minority leader still appears to support the congresswoman: from March 2021 to March 2022, his joint fundraising committee raised over $160,000 for her reelection campaign.
In her interview with ABC News, Herrera Beutler would not say whether she would support McCarthy for speaker should Republicans take the House. And while she has largely stayed clear of commenting on Trump or the Capitol riot since her impeachment vote, Herrera Beutler also declined to say whether she would vote for Trump should he run for president again.
"The next 24 hours, the only thing I'm focusing on, honestly, is my race," she said. "Right now, there isn't an election in 2024. There's one in 2022."
Across the state, Newhouse faces one Democrat and six Republicans, including Loren Culp, a former police chief and GOP candidate who refused to concede his 2020 race against Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.
The Washington incumbents have largely avoided mentioning their votes to impeach Trump while on the campaign trail, opting instead to zero-in on local issues.
"It was a year and a half ago. I've been talking about it for over a year. I feel fine, I feel good," Newhouse told ABC News last week on Capitol Hill.
In Michigan, Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump just 10 days into his first term in Congress, faces John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official who Democrats have controversially attempted to spotlight with an ad linking him to Trump, a strategy that even some Democrats have panned.
Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, four have chosen to retire, one was defeated by a substantial margin and another, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming -- who is leading the House effort to investigate Jan. 6 and whose state swung for Trump in 2020 by nearly 44 points -- will face primary voters on Aug. 16.
Newhouse and Herrera Beutler could survive their Trump-backed primary challenges due in part to Washington's unique voting system. The state's primary sends the top two vote-getting candidates on to the general election regardless of their party affiliation.
This type of primary system can be "helpful for the incumbents who are perceived as moderate," Travis Ridout, a political science professor at Washington State University, told ABC News.
That could leave Meijer of Michigan with the most challenging path to reelection. He needs to survive a head-to-head challenge from Gibbs as well as a general election fight against Democrat Hillary Scholten in a district that added more Democratic voters after the 2020 census.
Speaking to ABC News last week, Meijer argued that his constituents need an independent voice in Congress and "someone who will say the same thing behind closed doors that they will to somebody's face."
"That is what I have run to offer. That is what I've done while in office," he said.
"I cast a very difficult vote as a result of what occurred on Jan. 6 and then saw many folks begin to blame-cast or backpedal or make excuses," he said. "I don't think that's what the people deserve."
