Newhouse votes in line with GOP for House speaker. Opponent says ‘he’s voting for chaos’
Dan Newhouse’s recent Democrat opponent launched a new Political Action Committee earlier than planned, because he believes Newhouse is “voting for chaos.”
Newhouse voted this week for controversial Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for Speaker of the House after weeks without majority leadership in the chamber. Not enough Republicans supported Jordan’s two bids, but the vast majority of the party — 199, of the 218 —cast their ballot for him.
Newhouse told the Tri-City Herald in a statement that his priority is getting Congress back to work. In a separate response to the claim that Newhouse was “voting for chaos leadership” a spokesperson for Newhouse’s campaign said, “Dan will always vote for conservative leadership in the House of Representatives.”
His district stretches from the Tri-Cities to Yakima and includes large swaths of agricultural communities.
Voting records show Newhouse has voted in-line with the Republican party on recent speaker votes, and has taken to X, formerly known as Twitter, to call on holdouts to get the House back up and running.
Congress has been prevented from acting on several major issues because Republicans have not been able to come together to get enough votes to name a new speaker, who sets their legislative agenda.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted after Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz led a small contingent to declare the office of the speaker vacant. With Gaetz and 7 other Republicans voting with Democrats, it was enough to remove McCarthy.
Among the most pressing issues are approving funding for aid for the Israel-Gaza crisis and continuing critical funding for Ukraine.
Newhouse is also trying to get legislation approved for a new bill, The CIAO Act, which would demand greater transparency in the organic agricultural issue, as well as legislation that would prevent reintroducing Grizzly Bears in the northern Cascades.
“The House is now weeks into a rift that is dividing our Conference and preventing us from acting on the critical issues our country, and the world, face today,” Newhouse said in a statement to the Herald.
Newhouse continued, “Israel is under attack, our border remains weakened, and a looming government shutdown makes imperative the need to perform our Constitutional duty to fund the government and its people. It’s time to get back to work.”
Any candidate for speaker will need 217 votes, 1 short of the typical 218 due to resignations, according to The Hill. Members voting “present” or not in attendance can also change the threshold.
So far Jordan has fallen short, first by 20 votes and then by 22.
There was a proposal to empower the current House Speaker Pro Tempore until a permanent replacement could be voted through, but that seemed to have met backlash and was set aside.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise dropped out of the race for speaker last week without a formal vote after he failed to gain enough support.
New ‘Purple’ PAC
Newhouse’s 2022 Democrat opponent Doug White said he launched his new Rural Americans United PAC this week earlier than planned in response to the votes for Jordan, who has been decried as an extremist due to his participation in the bid to stop the certification of the 2020 election and refusal to testify before Congress.
In a news release about the new PAC, White said it was the result of lessons learned during his time campaigning, including that many in Central Washington had “never heard a positive democratic message.”
Instead of focusing on supporting individual candidates, the PAC will focus on year-round messaging centering on showing voters that democratic values are more closely aligned with their beliefs than they thought.
The PAC has committed to a $325,000 advertising blitz between now and the 2024 election, and they’re calling on Democrats west of the Cascades to support their work to “turn the center of the state purple.”
“(Rep.) Dan Newhouse’s gutless vote for chaos leadership is another humiliating attack on the American people. It’s a disgusting reminder of how a far-right minority forces their ideology on folks who do not share their values. This extremist group gets its strength in rural areas, like ours, where they have been successful in taking over local governments, school boards and other institutions that make critical decisions, policies and laws that truly dictate our lives,” White said in a news release.
“Newhouse’s despicable vote for a corrupt self-serving bully like Jim Jordan, is proof that Central Washington voters aren’t getting both sides of the story. If they were, Newhouse couldn’t vote the way he did this week.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
