House GOP fears primary losers could jeopardize razor-thin majority

Some House Republicans are getting worried over the prospect of colleagues quiet-quitting after losing their primary races as election season heats up, threatening to whittle down the GOP's already perilously slim majority.

House Republicans will likely only be able to lose two votes on any party-line measure after a special election in a deep-red Georgia district this week. 

Some told Fox News Digital they're worried, however, that their colleagues could begin missing key votes before the end of their terms if their ambitions for higher office do not go as planned.

"It's a real problem," one House Republican who was granted anonymity to speak candidly told Fox News Digital. "Is one of them going to be gone for his runoff? Will another not come back at all because he's mad? Is another one not going to come back because he lost?"

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Asked if such absences could translate to Republicans losing a functional majority in the House, that GOP lawmaker said, "We could, that's why everybody's nervous about it."

In the Lone Star State alone, two House Republicans are guaranteed not to be returning next year after last week's primaries. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, lost his bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is headed for a runoff with state Attorney General Ken Paxton. And Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, faced an upset against a primary challenger running to his right, conservative state lawmaker Steve Toth.

Neither has indicated they will be skipping House votes for the remainder of the term due to those losses, but Hunt's attendance record has already generated frustration among his colleagues.

Aside from them, there are 18 other House Republicans currently vying for different positions in upcoming primaries and general elections.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a high-ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News Digital that he too was worried about GOP attendance as election season heats up.

"Our margins are as razor-thin as they can possibly be, so we need everybody to show up," he said. "So yeah, that could potentially be an issue. I hope it isn't."

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital, "I think it's a concern."

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"I hope that they recognize the moment. There's still a lot of lane left in this Congress, and people have put their faith in their elected representatives to get the job done. So they need to be here," Fry said.

But the election season starting up is not the first time this Congress — or even this year — that worries about the GOP's margins have flared up.

For example, a small group of Republicans was able to join with Democrats to successfully force a vote on extending expired Obamacare subsidies that the GOP largely opposed. And just last month, President Donald Trump's tariff strategy faced a public setback when a similarly small number of GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats to rebuke it.

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Neither of those measures will likely be taken up in the Republican-held Senate, but it's a testament to the slim margins Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is presiding over.

And aside from the legislative setbacks seen earlier this year, the sudden, tragic death of one House Republican and abrupt resignation of another have served to further whittle down the conference's numbers.

Car accidents and other health problems have also at times forced the House to amend its schedule. It's prompted House GOP leaders to warn their lawmakers to be as cautious as possible when outside of Washington.

"The margins are really, really close. A few of us were in a car the other day, driving … if that became an accident, that would have tipped the scale," Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital back in January. "It’s a big deal to change power outside of a normal election cycle."

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters last week that attendance is "always a concern" but was optimistic about navigating through it.

"We've had elections along the way, and yet we're still able to move our agenda," Scalise said. "We track people that have surgeries, tell us in advance, and we work around that. But at the end of the day, we've been able to move President Trump's agenda and our agenda, and get the things done for the American people that we ran on."