How Did House Members Vote on House Resolutions 24 and 72?
Introduction: The new Congress has only been in session for just over a month, and already, two notable and controversial partisan (in terms of the final vote) bills have been voted on by the House of Representatives. The first, House Resolution 27, introduced an Article of Impeachment against lame duck President Donald Trump (whose trial is ongoing in the Senate). The other bill, House Resolution 72, stripped House committee assignments from first-term Representative Majorie Taylor Greene (R, GA-14), whose controversial views and statements have attracted significant criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. Today's brief post will compare who voted how on both bills, especially focusing on House Republicans who joined House Democrats.
Table 1: Comparing H.Res. 24 and 72 Roll Calls
Notes: Italicized members occupy a district that voted for the opposite party for president in 2020.
Sources: "Roll Call 17," "Roll Call 25."
Voting Patterns:
House Democrats: The most obvious result that stands out is that on both bills, all House Democrats (221 on H.Res. 27, and 219 on H.Res. 72) voted in support of the bill. Especially on the impeachment bill, this is a huge change from past successful impeachment bills, as at least one member from the party opposite the president subject to the impeachment bill voted against it (Jacobson). During Trump's first impeachment, two House Democrats, Reps. Collin Peterson (D, MN-7) and Jeff Van Drew (D, NJ-2) voted not to impeach Trump. Subsequently, Van Drew switched his party affiliation to Republican, while Peterson lost his bid for another term in 2020 (McPherson). Furthermore, on the first impeachment vote, Rep. Jared Golden (D, ME-2) voted to not impeach Trump on one of the two charges, while voting for the 2021 impeachment vote.
Two Democrats who voted on impeachment did not vote on H.Res. 72, one of whom (Rep. Cedric Richmond of LA-2) resigned after the impeachment vote to join the Biden administration (Hilburn). Coincidentally, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D, OH-11), the other Democrat who did not vote on H.Res. 72, is expected to resign sometime soon for similar reasons (Kilgore).
House Republicans: Between both bills, 18 House Republicans joined all voting House Democrats in supporting one or more of the measures. Of these, 3 voted for both bills, including recent Trump critic Adam Kinzinger (R, IL-16), and moderate Republicans John Katko (R, NY-24) and Fred Upton (R, MI-5). 7 voted for impeachment but not to strip Rep. Greene's committee assignments, while 8 voted the opposite (no on impeachment, yes on stripping Rep. Greene's committee assignments). Four Republicans did not vote on impeachment, and one Republican, Rep. Ron Wright (R, TX-6) did not vote on H.Res.72. Rep. Wright died of COVID-19 earlier this week after being in quarantine since late January (Zanona).
Among Republicans who voted "Yes" on one of or both bills, two patterns stand out among those who voted "Yes" on H.Res. 72 (removing Rep. Greene from committee assignments). In particular, three Cuban-American Republicans from South Florida all voted yes, possibly due to their proximity to Stoneman Douglas High School, site of the tragic 2018 mass shooting that Rep. Greene has articulated was a "false flag" or "hoax" (Man). In addition, multiple New York City area members in New York and New Jersey also voting Yes may reflect their proximity to New York City and the 9/11 attacks, as Rep. Greene has openly expressed support for the "no planes" conspiracy theory ("Space Lasers"). On the other hand, there are no clear patterns among Republicans who voted "Yes" on impeachment, although it is notable that several had openly opposed Trump's 2020 election-related conspiracy theories, including Reps. Kinzinger, Cheney, Upton (Solender), and Katko (Baker). On the other hand, Rep. Rice of South Carolina stands out as the only Republican who voted "Yes" on impeachment while joining with Republican objections to some of the electoral college votes (Bohatch).
Members in 2020 Presidential/House Crossover Districts: In the 117th Congress, 16 members occupy districts that voted for the opposite party in the presidential election, comprised of 9 Republicans and 7 Democrats (Coleman). As noted before, all House Democrats voting on both bills voted Yes, including those 7 occupying Trump-won districts. On the Republican side, only 5 representing Biden-won districts voted for one or both bills, and there are no clear patterns among those who voted for either bill, except the patterns noted above. Notably, multiple House Republicans who represent districts districts Biden won by at least 5% voted against both bills, including Omaha's Don Bacon (R, NE-2), DFW's Beth van Duyne (R, TX-24), and Mike Garcia (R, CA-25) in Northern LA County.
Works Cited:
Baker, Chris. "John Katko responds to Trump’s election claims: ‘There has been no evidence of fraud’." Syracuse Post-Standard, 6 Nov. 2020, www.syracuse.com/politics/2020/11/john-katko-responds-to-trumps-election-claims-there-has-been-no-evidence-of-fraud.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
Bohatch, Emily. "US House votes to impeach Trump again. One SC Republican crossed party lines." The State, 13 Jan. 2021, www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article248473665.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
Coleman, J. Miles. "2020’s Crossover Districts." Sabato's Crystal Ball, centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/2020s-crossover-districts/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2021.
Hilburn, Greg. "Louisiana political heavyweights seek to replace New Orleans Congressman Cedric Richmond." Monroe News-Star, 20 Jan. 2021, www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2021/01/20/louisiana-political-heavyweights-seek-replace-congressman-cedric-richmond-march-20-election/4221132001/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Jacobson, Louis. "How bipartisan was the vote to impeach Donald Trump, in historical context?" PolitiFact, 13 Jan. 2021, www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/13/jake-tapper/how-bipartisan-was-vote-impeach-donald-trump-histo/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Kilgore, Ed. "Democratic House Majority May Drop to Two Seats in January." Intelligencer, New York Magazine, 9 Dec. 2020, nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/democratic-house-majority-may-drop-to-two-seats-in-january.html. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Man, Anthony. "South Florida Republicans explain why they broke with their party. ‘I had to hold Marjorie Taylor Greene accountable’" South Florida Sun Sentinel, 5 Feb. 2021, www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/fl-ne-florida-republicans-marjorie-taylor-greene-20210205-bqcpjtkwyjbj3egjivayu6rhhy-story.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
McPherson, Lindsey. "House impeaches Trump in wake of mob attack on Capitol." Roll Call, 13 Jan. 2021, www.rollcall.com/2021/01/13/houses-second-impeachment-of-trump-will-be-different-from-first/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
"Roll Call 17 | Bill Number: H. Res. 24." Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, 13 Jan. 2021, clerk.house.gov/Votes/202117. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021.
"Roll Call 25 | Bill Number: H. Res. 72." Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, 4 Feb. 2021, clerk.house.gov/Votes/202125. Accessed 5 Feb. 2021.
Solender, Andrew. "These Are The Republicans Who Have Acknowledged Biden’s Victory." Forbes, 10 Dec. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/12/10/these-are-the-republicans-who-have-acknowledged-bidens-victory/?sh=7be9b5ec417b. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
"Space lasers to 9/11 conspiracies: A glance at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's incendiary words." Tulsa World, 5 Feb. 2021, tulsaworld.com/news/national/space-lasers-to-9-11-conspiracies-a-glance-at-rep-marjorie-taylor-greenes-incendiary-words/article_9850cd21-8bc6-5b3c-8d95-e377f44d2758.html. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
"The 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump." TheGuardian, 13 Jan. 2021, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/republicans-donald-trump-impeached-house. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
Zanona, Melanie. "GOP Rep. Ron Wright dies after Covid diagnosis." Politico, 8 Feb. 2021, www.politico.com/news/2021/02/08/gop-rep-ron-wright-dies-after-covid-battle-467238. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.
