Meet the 38 Republicans who defied Trump on the spending and debt deal.

• Dec. 20, 2024Updated 1:49 p.m. ET

The group of 38 House Republicans who refused to vote for the spending and debt deal demanded by President-elect Donald J. Trump is largely made up of the most hard-right members — those limited-government fiscal hawks who have so defined themselves as hard-core conservatives in their districts that they believe they are impervious to a primary threat.

There was Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, known on Capitol Hill as Mr. No, who has never bent to Mr. Trump and so far never suffered politically for it. In 2020, when he tried to derail the passage of a coronavirus emergency relief bill, Mr. Trump called him a “third rate Grandstander” and said voters needed to “throw Massie out of Republican Party!”

Mr. Massie has won re-election twice since then.

Members like Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Tim Burchett of Tennessee have never voted for spending deals or debt ceiling increases. They also have well-known brands in their solidly Republican districts that allow them more freedom when it comes to stepping out of line from what the party’s leader demands.

And while they may not agree with Mr. Trump on government spending, many have gone out of their way to demonstrate loyalty in other ways. Some of the defectors were among those who showed up at the criminal courthouse in Manhattan last summer to show their support for Mr. Trump during his hush money trial.

Then there is Representative Chip Roy of Texas, who has been at odds with Mr. Trump since he declined to vote to overturn the 2020 election results and then endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for president.

Mr. Roy has been publicly at war with the president-elect this week over Mr. Trump’s demand to raise the federal debt limit. He delivered a scathing lecture to his colleagues on the House floor on Thursday night, chiding them for talking tough on spending and then voting to allow more trillions to be added to the government debt.