The House of Representatives voted to formally rebuke Democratic Illinois Rep. Chuy García for effectively choosing his successor in a retirement scheme that critics have labeled a coronation.
A group of 23 Democrats, including the resolution’s sponsor Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, joined nearly all voting Republicans in denouncing García for “undermining the process of a free and fair election” with the timing of his retirement announcement. House Democratic leadership failed to prevent a mass exodus of Democrats from supporting the symbolic resolution calling out anti-democratic behavior in their caucus.
Four House Democrats who are running for Senate during next year’s midterm elections — Reps. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Haley Stevens of Michigan, Angie Craig of Minnesota and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — backed the measure.
Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson was the lone Republican to vote “present.” Democratic Reps. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia joined Davidson in voting “present.”
“Congressman Chuy García has been a progressive champion and voice for the voiceless in his community for decades,” House Democratic leadership said in a joint statement Tuesday in an attempt to head off defections from their own caucus. “We unequivocally oppose this misguided resolution.”
However, a majority of lawmakers appeared to have been persuaded by Gluesenkamp Perez’s argument that García’s retirement gambit constituted “election subversion.”
García, 69, announced his decision to not seek reelection after the filing deadline to run for his seat had passed, leaving his chief of staff, who entered the race hours before the cutoff date, the Democratic Party’s automatic nominee.
Garcí1 has denied effectively hand-picking his successor, but he told the Chicago Sun Times that he helped his chief of staff collect the requisite signatures necessary to qualify for the primary ballot. García did not announce his retirement until several days after the filing deadline.
“You don’t get your cake and eat it too,” Gluesenkamp Perez said on the House floor Monday. “If you’re not going to run, you don’t get to choose your successor no matter how noble the work you have done beforehand.”
A group of progressive House Democrats railed against Gluesenkamp Perez on the House floor Monday night for advancing her resolution over House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ explicit objection.
“Chuy Garcia has stood his ground in moments when others have not, including the sponsor of this resolution of disapproval who has opened the doors to authoritarianism by the way she votes,” Democratic Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez said while taking aim at Glusenkamp Perez’s moderate voting record.
Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the leader of the congressional progressive caucus, also criticized the resolution in a brief interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“I think that it’s a very unusual and unique situation, and I think that there should be laws in every state that ensure that somebody can’t drop out at the last minute without fairness,” Jayapal said. “But I don’t understand why somebody from my home state of Washington would be opining a resolution of disapproval. Like, why not work to change the law in Illinois?”
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a top GOP super PAC involved in House races, criticized Gluesenkamp Perez for failing to have the same energy for condemning the party’s apparent coronation of former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Democrats, however, were eligible to challenge Harris for the presidential nomination unlike García’s eleventh-hour retirement move.
“Marie Gluesenkamp Perez was complicit in the anointing of Kamala Harris and disenfranchisement of millions of Washington State voters,” CLF spokeswoman Lydia Hall said in a statement. “Why does she suddenly care that Illinois voters are being disenfranchised but didn’t care when it was happening in her home state and the entire country?”
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