Michigan GOP committee deadlocks on resolution to censure Meijer over impeachment vote

Rep. Peter Meijer (Mich.) was able to avoid a censure from Republicans in his home district on Monday following a deadlocked vote on a resolution to condemn the GOP congressman for voting to impeach former President Trump last month. 

The 11-11 vote by the state Republican Party’s 3rd Congressional District Committee pitted Trump loyalists against Republicans condemning some representatives’ repeated unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Detroit News reported. 

Meijer was one of 10 GOP lawmakers who joined all House Democrats last month in voting to impeach Trump, charging him with one article of inciting the deadly mob attack at the Capitol with his continued unsupported allegations of a “rigged” election in favor of President Biden. 

Trump now faces an impeachment trial in the Senate this week, though a conviction is widely considered unlikely, as 17 Republicans would need to back the move in order to achieve the two-thirds support necessary to convict. 

The Detroit News reported that Mike Hewitt, chairman of the district committee, said Meijer addressed the panel ahead of the vote Monday evening and that “it was a very civil exchange.” 

“We voted. There’s not much to say beyond that. The math is the math,” Hewitt added. 

He went on to say that “the congressman was very gracious in his time and his explanation of his position, and the members of the committee listened intently. We had a brief conversation after and a vote, and you know the results.”

The Hill has reached out to Meijer’s office for comment. 

While Meijer was able to avoid the largely symbolic display of disapproval, fellow Michigan Rep. Fred Upton (R) has been censured by the Cass County Republican Party and Allegan County Republican Party in response to his vote in favor of impeachment. 

At least five other House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump have since been censured by state or local Republican parties, including the House GOP conference chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). 

Cheney has been censured by the Republican parties in 13 of Wyoming’s 23 counties, and on Saturday was censured by the state’s GOP organization, which criticized her for voting to impeach Trump without offering the then-president a “formal hearing or due process.” 

Cheney responded to the Wyoming GOP vote in a statement, explaining that her vote for impeachment “was compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution.” 

“Wyoming citizens know that this oath does not bend or yield to politics or partisanship,” Cheney continued. “I will always fight for Wyoming values and stand up for our Western way of life.”