The conservative House Freedom Caucus voted this week to open a review into Rep. Warren Davidson’s (R-Ohio) standing in the group after he took the unprecedented step of endorsing the primary challenger to the group’s chair, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.
A motion was made Tuesday evening for the group’s board to determine whether Davidson is a member in good standing of the Freedom Caucus, which comprises roughly three dozen hard-line Republicans, according to two sources familiar. The group then voted to send the motion to the Freedom Caucus board, according to one of the sources.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) made the motion, one of the sources and a third source familiar told The Hill.
If the board determines Davidson is a member not in good standing, then the threshold to remove him from the group decreases from 80 percent to 50 percent, two of the sources said.
Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Freedom Caucus told The Hill the group does not comment on membership or internal processes.
Davidson told The Hill, “I am not doing media on this topic,” when reached for comment, and sent a thread he posted Wednesday night on the social platform X explaining his endorsement against Good.
Davidson earlier this month endorsed Good’s primary challenger John McGuire in the GOP primary for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, an extraordinary move for a Freedom Caucus member to take against an incumbent and the leader of the group.
McGuire is currently leading Good by 0.6 percentage points, though Good has vowed to demand a recount in the race.
“John McGuire is conservative and effective,” Davidson wrote in a statement. “He will work well with others to deliver conservative results.”
Davidson defended his endorsement of McGuire Wednesday evening, writing on X: “I hope my endorsement for John McGuire made a difference and I look forward to serving alongside him in the 119th Congress to support President Trump’s efforts to Drain the Swamp.”
The bad blood between Davidson and Good is long-running.
In December, Davidson announced that he would not seek re-election to the Freedom Caucus Board after it recommended that Good be the next chairman of the conservative group.
“I am concerned that our group often relies too much on power (available primarily due to the narrow majority) and too little on influence with and among our colleagues. This approach is not a strong foundation for success,” Davidson wrote in a letter to colleagues at the time, according to Axios. “For me these concerns culminate with the Board’s recommendation that Bob Good serve as the next Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.”
Davidson is the latest Freedom Caucus member to be the subject of controversy within the group.
The conservative group voted to remove former Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) from its ranks in March, days before he was set to resign from his seat. A Freedom Caucus member who requested anonymity to discuss the internal move told The Hill at the time that he had not been a member in “good standing,” had not regularly attended meetings of the group “in months,” “hasn’t been with conservatives on several major issues” and “is leaving the conference hanging with a historically narrow margin.”
And last summer, the Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from the group after she grew close to GOP leadership.
This story was updated at 8:49 p.m.