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Politics|House Condemns García’s Election Scheme Amid Democratic Split
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/us/politics/house-condemns-garcia-election-scheme.html
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The measure rebuked the retiring Democratic representative Jesús García of Illinois for maneuvering to ensure his top aide would be the only one running to succeed him.
Nov. 18, 2025, 4:47 p.m. ET
The House on Tuesday officially rebuked Representative Jesús García, Democrat of Illinois, for maneuvering to hand-select his successor, as nearly two dozen House Democrats broke with their party to back a measure that prompted a bitter intraparty spat.
The vote was 236 to 183 to pass a resolution by Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Democrat of Washington, that called the behavior of Mr. García “beneath the dignity of his office and incompatible with the spirit of the United States Constitution.”
The measure was a rare instance of a lawmaker spearheading an effort to formally condemn a member of her own party, and it opened an angry rift among House Democrats. Most of them denounced Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez for introducing it, arguing that she was dividing their caucus at a time when they needed to focus their attacks on President Trump.
But 22 of them crossed party lines to join Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez in support of her resolution. Another three Democrats voted present, declining to register a position.
The measure is symbolic and will not affect Mr. García’s standing in the House. But Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez maintained that Mr. García’s actions could not go without reprimand, and urged her colleagues to look beyond party loyalty and recognize his conduct as “election subversion.”
At issue was the timing of the announcement this month by Mr. García, known as Chuy, that he would be retiring from Congress after three terms. Mr. García, 69, had submitted paperwork to run for re-election in 2026, and no other Democrat had filed to run against him. Only after the Nov. 5 filing deadline in the race did he announce that he actually planned to retire, not run again. By that time, his chief of staff, Patty García, who is not related to him but knew of his plans, had submitted her name for the ballot, the only Democrat to do so in time to run for the Chicago-area district that is all but certain to elect a Democrat.
