The House voted 211 to 204 on Tuesday night to refer Rep. Thomas Massie's eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee — the vote that shelved the effort — and eleven Democrats were not in the chamber when it happened. On House Roll Call 317, the motion to refer drew 211 votes in favour, all of them Republican, against 204 no votes: 203 Democrats plus Massie himself, the Republican who wrote the articles. Every Democrat who was present voted against the referral.
The absences mattered because the margin was seven votes. Had all eleven missing Democrats voted no, the motion to refer would have failed 215 to 211 and the articles would not have been sent to the committee. Instead, the referral passed, and the impeachment effort now sits with the Judiciary Committee, shelved unless and until Democrats take control of both chambers in January.
The eleven names below are the Democratic "not voting" entries on the official House Clerk roll call, with each member's reported explanation where one exists. Four of the eleven have given no public explanation at all.
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) — No public explanation has been given for her absence.
Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) — He was in California preparing for a medical procedure, and his doctor advised him against travelling to Washington for the vote.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) — Delayed by a traffic incident and a police-escorted bus on the way to the Capitol; she reached the chamber just as the vote was ending.
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) — His office said he faced a personal emergency. He would have voted no and planned to enter his position in the Congressional Record.
Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) — Caught in the same traffic incident and police-escorted bus delay on his way to vote no; he later entered his opposition in the Congressional Record, according to reports.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — She was in San Francisco for Swords to Plowshares' 30th Annual Veterans Day Celebration, where she received a Lifetime Advocate for Veterans Award. Her spokesman, Ian Krager, said she supported the impeachment and would have voted no.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) — No public explanation has been given for her absence.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) — Also delayed by the traffic incident and the police-escorted bus. Her office said she was "blocked from entering the Capitol to vote due to a traffic incident and a police escort of a bus during the vote," and she entered her opposition in the Congressional Record, according to reports.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) — No public explanation has been given for her absence.
Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.) — Stuck behind a motorcade and missed the vote by one minute, her chief of staff Andrew Noh said. She would have voted no.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) — No public explanation has been given for her absence.
The pattern of the absences was not uniform. Congressional reporter Jamie Dupree noted that Correa, Pelosi, Stevens and Wilson missed all three votes the House took on Tuesday, while the other seven absent Democrats were present for other votes that day — their missing the impeachment vote came down to the hour, the traffic and, for three of them, the same delayed bus.
For voters, the point is accountability in its simplest form. Impeachment is the House's heaviest check on an administration, Tuesday's vote was decided by seven votes, and eleven members of one party were not there — four of them with no explanation their constituents can judge. Whatever each member's reason, the record of who showed up is now part of the public record, and it will still be there when those members next ask their districts for another term.
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