Eight House Democrats broke with party leadership to back a Republican resolution condemning socialism.
The nonbinding measure passed 220 to 192, with every Republican who voted supporting it and eight Democrats crossing the aisle. Two more Democrats voted present.
Republican Rep. Jeff Crank of Colorado introduced the resolution, which condemned “socialism in all its forms” and called for passage of the SAVE America Act. That Trump legislative priority would impose new voter identification requirements on federal elections.
The SAVE Act provision gave Democratic leaders a sharper reason to oppose the measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York came out against it before the vote, calling it a “MAGA effort to rig the midterm elections.”
Eight Democrats voted for it anyway. As originally reported, the Democrats who crossed the aisle were 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. Democratic Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania voted present.
Rep. Gonzalez was direct about his reasoning after the vote.
“I don’t agree with socialism and I don’t have a major problem with voter ID,” he told reporters. He added that socialism “just never worked” and that most Americans reject it.
Not every moderate who objected to the resolution was objecting to its anti-socialism language. Several took issue specifically with its support for the SAVE Act. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, along with Democratic Reps. Hillary Scholten of Michigan, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, and Tom Suozzi of New York, sought an amendment that would have removed the election legislation from the resolution entirely.
The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee blocked that amendment from reaching the floor.
Gottheimer was blunt about what he saw as the resolution’s real purpose. “If you really look at it, it’s just the SAVE Act with a wrapper on it,” he told reporters. He argued Republicans were not genuinely interested in putting members on the record about socialism, but rather in advancing their voter ID agenda again through a different vehicle.
Republicans have been working to link Democrats to the party’s more progressive wing ahead of the November midterms. The vote forced every House member to go on record about socialism, a word that carries heavy political weight heading into an election cycle.
Eight Democrats decided they were comfortable with that record. Their leadership was not.