These 9 House Republicans rebelled against GOP leadership over parental proxy voting

Nine House Republicans defied GOP leadership on Tuesday and opposed an effort to block a bill instituting proxy voting for new parents from coming to the floor, halting key legislative action in the chamber.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) collected the 218 signatures — including from 11 Republicans — needed to successfully execute a discharge petition and allow her to force a vote on allowing new parents to vote by proxy.

But Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has argued that the practice is unconstitutional and, as a result, the leadership-controlled House Rules Committee inserted language that sought to block the effort into a procedural bill that would have set up consideration for two unrelated GOP priorities: to limit the power of federal district judges to impose national injunctions and to require proof of citizenship to vote.

That move, however, angered Republicans who supported the proxy voting push, as well as those who are wary about leadership derailing one of the few rarely-successful tools to circumvent leadership. And they were undeterred by the prospect of being labeled saboteurs of a Trump-supported agenda.

The House broke 206-222 on a vote to advance a rule.

Here are the nine Republicans who defied leadership to vote against it.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.): Burchett, who is often a thorn in the side of House GOP leadership on major votes, had signed Luna’s discharge petition to force a vote on proxy voting.

Burchett last week alleged that leadership suggested they would bring up some of his bills if he helped defeat Luna’s push.

“I was like, voting against pregnant women? Are y’all crazy?” Burchett said.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.): Kiley opposed the rule even though he did not sign the discharge petition.

“I don’t agree with how the matter of the discharge petition was handled. It’s wrong to try to cancel a vote that is required by the rules of the House,” Kiley said in a statement.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.): LaLota opposed the rule even though he did not sign Luna’s discharge petition. The New York Republican announced his position ahead of the vote, pointing to the rules governing discharge petitions.

After the vote, LaLota told reporters: “I’m a process guy, we should follow the rules.”

“We all agreed to the rules months and months ago that said if a member got 218 signatures for a discharge petition that the issue would see the light of day,” he continued. “And that somebody tried to use a different rule to subvert that member’s good, hard work, to me is something I couldn’t support.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.): Lawler was one of 11 Republicans who signed Luna’s discharge petition. He welcomed a second daughter during his first term in Congress in 2024.

In a statement, Lawler said his vote was as much of a protest of leadership’s hardline tactics as it was about the family issue. He slammed the “unprecedented move by leadership to undermine the rights of individual members to bring forth a discharge petition with the support of a majority of the whole House.”

“Regardless of how one feels about a discharge petition, this is a step that drastically limits the power of individual members and vests it almost entirely in leadership,” Lawler said.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.): Luna, who had her first child months into her first term, had pushed for months to allow proxy voting for new moms and led the discharge petition effort. On the steps after the vote, she said: “Never bet against a Luna.”

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.): Mackenzie was the only first-term Republican member to vote against the rule, and is a cosponsor of the resolution to allow proxy voting for new parents.

Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio): Miller noted that he is the father of a one-year-old girl when explaining his vote and that “in the first weeks of her life there were some complications.”

“I can not imagine a mother, who has spent 9 months going through the wringer, being told that you can’t be with your infant only because you are one of 435 people. We are the pro-life, pro-family party,” Miller said in a statement. 

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.): Steube led his own successful discharge petition in the last Congress to force consideration of his bill to give tax relief for losses caused by natural disasters — legislation that became law in December.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.): Van Drew, the Democrat-turned-Republican, signed Luna’s discharge petition to force a vote on proxy voting for new parents. Asked last week if he would remain in support of the effort despite leadership’s opposition, he said he was sticking with Luna.

“I gave her my commitment and my word,” he told The Hill.

Mike Lillis contributed.