Eight House Democrats broke ranks with party leaders Tuesday to back a Republican-led resolution condemning socialism and throwing support behind President Donald Trump’s election security push.
The nonbinding resolution passed the House 220-192, with every Republican who voted supporting the measure, along with eight Democrats. Two Democrats voted “present.”
The measure, introduced by Republican Rep. Jeff Crank of Colorado, condemned “socialism in all its forms” while also calling for enactment of the SAVE America Act, a major Trump legislative priority that would impose new voter identification requirements.
The inclusion of the election legislation gave Democratic leaders another reason to oppose the resolution even as Republicans forced lawmakers to go on the record on socialism ahead of the midterm elections.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York came out against the measure before the vote, calling it a “MAGA effort to rig the midterm elections.”
Eight Democrats nevertheless crossed the aisle.
Democratic Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas, and Kathy Castor and Darren Soto of Florida joined Republicans in voting for the resolution.
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Democratic Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania voted “present.”
Gonzalez made clear afterward that he had little objection to either condemning socialism or requiring identification to vote.
“I don’t agree with socialism and I don’t have a major problem with voter ID,” Gonzalez told reporters after the vote.
“Socialism. I don’t know. I’m from the 80s. Socialism is not a good word for us, right?” he added. “And it just never worked. And I think that most Americans don’t agree with some of those proposals.”
Other moderate Democrats opposed the final measure while objecting specifically to its support for the SAVE America Act.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey joined Democratic Reps. Hillary Scholten of Michigan, Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Tom Suozzi of New York in seeking an amendment that would have stripped the election legislation provision from the resolution.
The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee did not approve the amendment for consideration on the House floor.
“If you really look at it, it’s just the SAVE Act with a wrapper on it,” Gottheimer told reporters Monday. “They’re just running the SAVE Act again, which we’ve already — that’s asked and answered. We’ve been through this play. They’re not actually interested in getting people on the record on whether socialists are part of the Democratic Party.”
The vote comes as Republicans increasingly seek to tie Democrats to the party’s socialist wing heading into November, while moderates attempt to put distance between themselves and the movement.
This time, eight Democrats were willing to buck their leadership and join Republicans in formally condemning it.
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