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The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning socialism on Tuesday evening, with all but eight House Democrats voting against it.
The resolution passed 220 to 192 with all «no» votes coming from the left, including Democrats’ senior leaders: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.
The legislation also affirmed support for election integrity and called for passage of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which nearly all Democrats oppose.
In a stunning twist of fate, however, the vote would not have occurred if two House Democrats hadn’t stepped in hours earlier to help the GOP through a procedural hurdle — blindsiding Jeffries in the process.
JOHNSON SCORES WIN AS CONSERVATIVE REBELS END HOUSE FLOOR BLOCKADE OVER VOTER ID BILL
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
House conservatives had threatened to tank a procedural vote, called a «rule vote,» meant to unlock debate on several bills GOP leaders wanted lawmakers to vote on this week. That included the resolution condemning socialism and several other unrelated bills.
Five Republicans voted against the rule, which was poised to fail until Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., provided two critical votes to get the GOP over the finish line in a narrow 209 to 208 vote.
All Republicans wound up voting in favor of the resolution condemning socialism and affirming election integrity on Tuesday evening, however.
Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez were among the Democrats who joined the GOP in that vote, as well as Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, Kathy Castor, D-Fla., Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., and Darren Soto, D-Fla. Reps. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., voted «present.»
Socialism has dominated the 2026 midterm election season on both sides of the aisle. Democrats are grappling with a far-left insurgency within their ranks as candidates linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continue to topple incumbents and establishment-backed candidates across the country.
It’s provided fodder for the House GOP while it fights an uphill battle to keep control of Congress in November as Republicans warn the socialist left will take over the Democratic Party if it wins.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters outside his office on day 28 of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
«Socialism has failed everywhere it’s been tried without exception. It’s a dangerous ideology that creates misery for the very people it claims to help,» Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. «Today’s vote puts the Left on the record and removes any doubt about where my colleagues on the other side of the aisle stand.»
Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., who led the resolution, told Fox News Digital, «The resolution is pretty easy, right? It condemns socialism in all its forms, including the DSA, recommits ourselves to the Constitution of the United States…a third point is that we don’t want non-citizens voting in elections.»
«They can certainly be critical, but it’s just a quick choice for the American people to see where people stand on this stuff,» Crank said.
But Democrats contended that Republicans’ largely symbolic resolution was a meaningless political exercise that does nothing to help Americans with their everyday problems. Many on the left have also dismissed the GOP’s election integrity efforts as voter suppression.
«So you’re concerned about rising gas, or are you concerned about grocery prices? You know, don’t worry. Republicans in Congress are passing another non-binding resolution condemning socialism,» Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said during a hearing on Monday.
The Tuesday evening vote would not have been possible without Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez rescuing Republicans’ agenda. Golden is not running for re-election, while Gluesenkamp Perez is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.
It’s almost unheard of for the minority party to help their political rivals pass a rule, and Jeffries told reporters he was not notified beforehand.
The five House Republicans who voted against it were Reps. Pete Sessions, R-Texas; Chip Roy, R-Texas; Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Clay Higgins, R-La.; and Andy Harris, R-Md.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, attends a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, July 17, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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The rebels’ issue was not with the measure itself, nor the bills it would have allowed the House to pass. Their votes were a protest against how their leaders handled a plan to avert a government shutdown just before the midterm elections, a short-term funding bill called a continuing resolution (CR). That measure passed just before the rule vote began.
But the five GOP lawmakers took issue with how the Senate modified an original House-passed CR, including adding an unrelated measure to delay a congressionally approved hemp product ban by 30 days and a provision curbing the Trump administration’s control over federal grants.
It’s worth noting that Golden is also co-lead of a bill aimed at pausing new federal restrictions on certain American lobster and crab fishing industries, which would have also been stalled if the rule failed.
