Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, now probably understands why his ambivalent loyalty to former President Donald Trump was a waste of time, energy and political capital. With the Party of Trump, there is no room for moderation or equivocation. Davis now finds himself "primaried," or challenged in the 2022 primary by a fellow Republican who just won Trump's endorsement. Davis gambled and lost, sticking with a president who represents everything the four-term Illinois congressman seems to abhor.

Davis' consistent stands on morality, integrity, frank honesty and basic decency are among the reasons this newspaper recommended him in the 2020 election despite some sharp disagreements we had with him. Polls back then indicated that voters in his district, now newly redrawn, had taken a marked turn toward the political center after four years of Trump's extremism, and Davis correctly recognized the need to distance himself from the GOP's most dangerous tendencies. Davis went from voting in sync with Trump 96.9% of the time in the 2016-2017 session, eroding to only 33.3% in 2020, according to an analysis by fivethirtyeight.com.

But that's probably not what turned Trump against him. In the Electoral College vote after the November 2020 election, Davis dared to affirm Joe Biden's victory rather than embrace the myth that the election was stolen. Davis' new challenger, freshman Rep. Mary Miller, is a true Trump believer who is so far to the extremes that she tweeted shortly after taking office that Adolf Hitler "was right on one thing. He said, whoever has the youth has the future." She has described the Democratic Party as "an anti-American party, they are an anti-Christian party."

Miller doesn't even live in the 15th District, which is not a legal impediment to seeking that congressional seat.

Davis was a critic of the Jan. 6 insurrection and appeared poised to accept an invitation along with fellow Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger to serve on the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. But under pressure from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Davis backed down. He lamely sought to justify his decision by objecting to the committee's focus on who organized and supported the insurrection rather than why Capitol police weren't better prepared to fend off the attackers. It was a weak stand that made him look wishy-washy in face of the most formidable challenge to American democracy since the Civil War.

Davis would've been better off asserting himself the way Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, did — standing in defense of integrity, honesty and democracy — instead of limply joining McCarthy's indefensible obstructionism. The independents and centrists who comprise the bulk of 15th District voters now have no reason to support Davis because they have no idea what he stands for anymore.

Now Davis finds himself cast into the political wilderness, and deservedly so for failing to defend his own core beliefs.

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