Key Points:

• Bipartisan Leaders: Susan Collins and John Cornyn are key bipartisan Republicans in the Senate.
• Ideology and Flexibility: Strong ideologies don’t hinder bipartisanship; experience often leads to pragmatism.
• Senate Advantage: Longer Senate terms allow for more bipartisan efforts than the House.
• Also: See Why investors are discovering “the Next Nvidia” for 2025 and scooping up shares

Austin and Michael discuss the most bipartisan Republicans in the Senate. Michael notes that some of the most bipartisan senators are also staunch conservatives, such as Mike Braun of Indiana and John Cornyn of Texas. Susan Collins of Maine ranks as the most bipartisan Republican. Michael emphasizes that long incumbency can have a moderating effect, allowing senators to build relationships across the aisle. The conversation highlights the importance of willingness to compromise, regardless of ideological alignment.

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Edited Video Transcript:

But unfortunately, it’s true.

You referred to these bipartisan Democrats as a dying breed or a rare breed, rather.

Unfortunately, that seems to be true of both parties right now.

But, you know, with many bipartisan Democrats perhaps leaving the Senate and then becoming rare on the Republican side, who are the most bipartisan Republicans that we can still count on, you know, as a populist and to work with the opposing party to get work to get bills done here in a productive way?

Who are these rare breed bipartisan Republicans in the Senate that people need now more than ever?

Yeah, well, what’s really interesting, you know, when I was really looking into this is ideology isn’t necessarily a stumbling block to bipartisanship.

So some of the Republican senators who feature highly on the bipartisan index are actually pretty far.

You would say are staunch conservatives or even quite far right wing.

Mike Braun, for example, of Indiana, is one of the furthest right members of Congress.

But he has shown willingness to reach across in certain areas.

But he’s another one who won’t be in office beyond 2025.

So number one is Susan Collins in Maine.

And I think that, again, whether that’s, you know, I think there is a combination of genuine beliefs and also political expediency there.

If you look at a map of the Senate, you’re not going to see an awful lot of red up there, just kind of on her own as a bit of an outlier.

She was actually expected to struggle in twenty twenty, but actually won a little bit more comfortably.

And I would attribute at least part of that to one kind of long incumbency.

She’s been in office since nineteen ninety-seven, I believe, and Maine does seem to like bipartisan senators.

Angus King, the independent who caucuses with the Democrats, also features very highly for bipartisanship.

So there’s that practicality there.

John Cornyn of Texas, you wouldn’t expect when you think bipartisanship in the Senate, you wouldn’t expect Texas to feature terribly highly there.

But again, he’s been around, has been in the Senate for over twenty years, knows how things work.

And I think long incumbency, uh, leans towards, it has kind of a moderating effect a little bit, you know, they, they work with the people alongside the L for a long time relationships develop.

Cause when we look at the least bipartisan, which we’ll get to, you know, we see there, they tend to be in office for shorter periods of time.

Um, so I think that’s a fair observation to make.

You know, I’m really, I’m really encouraged by something you said, and this is a case where, you know, this is our polarized world today.

It’s very easy to imagine that people who are strongly ideologically aligned, you know, either right or left or liberal or conservative, however you frame it, you know, might be stuck in their ways.

I’m relieved to hear you, who’s actually looking at the data here, saying, hey, you know, people can be really ideologically affiliated in one direction or the other, can still be bipartisan, right?

They can still be effective leaders for U.S. citizens.

They just need to be willing to compromise.

And, you know, that’s the nature of being a politician in a productive way, not a politician in the pejorative way.

But I’m encouraged to hear your observations that that’s not necessarily a limiting factor.

And then in many cases, incumbency doesn’t mean sclerosis or being a leader who’s stuck in your ways, but actually can be a sign of someone who has maybe has a moderating effect.

And they have the ability because maybe they’ve been in the majority and the minority multiple times in their career.

So they have the ability to work with the opposing party here.

I also think it’s a fair point to say that with the Senate, they’re not constantly running, you know, the house, they are basically always in campaign mode.

It’s only two years, but it’s a six-year term.

So they can, um, take stances that, you know, their house counterparts wouldn’t necessarily have, um, the freedom to do so.

Um, you know, you win election and then you’ve got six years, um, to do, you know, what you’ve got to do.

And there is, there are deals to be made, um, and they’re willing to stand up to, you know, the pressure.

Um, you know, John Cornyn did, in the wake of the tragedy focused on, you know, I was looking into the stuff he did and, you know, gun control is quite a red line for Republicans, but there are still things that there are small victories that can be gleaned out of that.

And Cornyn took a leading role in that.

And as we’re going to, when we get to the least bipartisan, we’re going to see that being overtly partisan can carry certain political risks, too.

So it’s a difficult balancing act.

The politicians have to have to go through.

But yeah, the point is, if they’re in the office for a long time, and even if they are far to the right or far to the left, that doesn’t really exist in America.

Center left, I guess you could say.

But that is not a barrier to cooperation.

There is possibilities of finding common ground, I think would be the main takeaway.

And one thing that, I think it was Chuck Grassley, said that bipartisanship does happen, it just doesn’t grab headlines, which is a fair point as well.

In the conflict economy of cable news, it’s a good point that maybe there are bipartisan deals getting done and we’re just not being presented with them.

Because candidly, they’re just not as interesting or juicy as the governmental mudslinging that we’ve now become accustomed to.

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