Respect For Marriage Act: How FL Republican House Members Voted

FLORIDA — Six GOP leaders from Florida were among the 47 U.S. House Republicans who crossed the aisle Tuesday to protect same-sex and interracial marriage.

Reps. Kat Cammack, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez, Brian Mast, Maria Elvira Salazar and Michael Waltz supported the Respect for Marriage Act, a measure Democrats said was necessary after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade earlier this summer, ending 50 years of constitutional protections on abortion. All 11 House Democrats from Florida voted for the measure.

The June decision in the case that reversed Roe, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was one of the few times in history the Supreme Court has invalidated an earlier decision declaring a constitutional right.

It sparked fears other landmark cases, including the 2015 decisionlegalizing same-sex marriage, could fall next. In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that if the Constitution's Due Process Clause doesn't guarantee the right to an abortion, it doesn't guarantee other substantive rights, either.

South Florida House Democrat Frederica Wilson told Local 10 News, “It’s clear that the Supreme Court has a put a target on the rights of everyday Americans because of their gender, and possibly soon because of their sexual orientation or other aspects of their identity. We cannot sit idly by as this radical court erodes our freedoms.”

Rep. Al Lawson, a Democrat, told the Tallahassee Democrat that he supported the bill because he’s worried that other civil rights might be threatened.

“The court severely weakened the Constitutional right to privacy. Now, right-wing extremists are leading a cruel assault on even more of Floridians cherished and hard-won freedoms, including the right to marry the person they love,” he said.

While some House Republicans from Florida supported the Respect for Marriage Act, many voted against the measure, including:

• Gus Bilirakis
• Vern Buchanan
• Byron Donalds
• Neal Dunn
• Scott C. Franklin
• Matt Gaetz
• Bill Posey
• John Rutherford
• Greg Steube
• Daniel Webster

Gaetz said the measure was fueled by “a fit of hysteria,” according to Newsweek.

According to WEAR-TV, he also said that House Democrats are "triggered by one sentence in a concurring opinion by Justice Thomas.”

The Respect for Marriage Act is the latest in Democrats’ push to codify rights that have been long considered settled law, but now seen as vulnerable with a firmly conservative Supreme Court.

Just over 20 percent of the GOP caucus supported the measure, which passed 267-157 on a roll call vote — signaling that at least some faction of the party accepts the decisions that constitutionally protected same-sex marriage, or that Republicans recognize personal freedoms are on the ballot in the November midterm elections.

Notably, both House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elsie Stefanik of New York and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer of Minnesota voted with the Democrats.

A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate. Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin were joined by Sen. Susan Collins in sponsoring the Senate version of the Respect for Marriage Act.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called the House bill “a stupid waste of time,” Slate reported.

Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Rick Scott told CNN that he won’t comment on the bill coming before the Senate before he sees it but said that he felt the Supreme Court had already decided on the matter.

Importantly, the legislation codifying the rights to same-sex and interracial marriage repeals the 1990s-era Defense of Marriage Act. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in two cases, Windsor v. United States, and the Obergefell v. Hodges decision protecting same-sex marriage.

The Defense of Marriage Act allowed states to refuse to recognize valid civil marriages of same-sex couples. That legislation also exempted same-sex couples, regardless of their marital status, from federal statutes, regulations and rulings that apply to other married people, denying them more than 1,100 federal benefits.

The House Democratic caucus voted unanimously in support of the Respect for Marriage Act. Republicans who joined them are:

California: Reps. Ken Calvert, Mike Garcia, Jay Obernolte, Darrell Issa and David Valadao.

Florida: Reps. Kat Cammack, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez, Brian Mast, Maria Elvira Salazar and Michael Waltz.

Idaho: Rep. Mike Simpson.

Illinois: Reps. Rodney Davis and Adam Kinzinger.

Iowa: Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

Michigan: Reps. Peter Meijer and Fred Upton.

Minnesota: Rep. Tom Emmer.

Missouri: Rep. Ann Wagner.

Nebraska: Rep. Don Bacon.

New Jersey: Rep. Jefferson Van Drew

New York: Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Chris Jacobs, John Katko, Nicole Malliotakis, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin.

North Dakota: Rep. Kelly Armstrong.

Ohio: Reps. Mike Carey, Anthony Gonzalez, David Joyce and Mike Turner.

Oregon: Rep Cliff Bentz.

Pennsylvania: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Dan Meuser and Scott Perry.

South Carolina: Reps. Nancy Mace and Tom Rice.

Texas: Rep. Tony Gonzales.

Utah: Reps. John Curtis, Blake Moore, Burgess Owens and Chris Stewart.

Washington: Rep. Dan Newhouse.

Wisconsin: Rep. Bryan Steil.

Wyoming: Rep. Liz Cheney

Five of the GOP House members who supported the bill — Gonzalez, Kinzinger, Katko, Upton and Jacobs — are not seeking reelection this year. Davis and Rice lost their primaries for re-election, and Zeldin is running for New York.