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Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R- Fla.) and eight other House Republicans joined all 213 Democrats to keep a bill alive that led to her resignation from the House Freedom Caucus, the New York Post reports.
Luna, 35, had previously garnered 218 signatures on a document calling for a vote on a bipartisan resolution allowing a House member to vote by proxy -- allowing another member to vote on their behalf -- if they or their spouse had given birth within the last 12 weeks, but claims the House Freedom Caucus had reportedly urged leadership to kill the effort, proposing that the threshold of support needed for a discharge petition should be raised. The congresswoman announced her resignation from the House Freedom Caucus on Monday (March 31), claiming that she had "consistently supported" each member of the group "even in moments of disagreement, honoring the mutual respect that has guided our caucus" and added that "that respect, however, was shattered last week."
“I cannot remain part of a caucus where a select few operate outside its guidelines, misuse its name, broker backroom deals that undermine its core values and where the lines of compromise and transaction are blurred, disparage me to the press, and encourage misrepresentation of me to the American people," Luna wrote.
Luna, who gave berth in 2023, previously posted that she would "likely" leave the House Freedom Caucus last week on her X account, claiming she "approached this entire process with honesty and integrity, doing things the right way."
“I will not compromise on something as important as ensuring new moms can vote while recovering. I believe this change will improve the institution in the long term,” she wrote at the time.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the House Freedom Caucus had argued that proxy voting is unconstitutional, however, Luna dismissed the arguments, claiming the bipartisan resolution is limited to new parents and would set limits on how long the proxy voting process could be allowed. The House Freedom Caucus includes several of President Donald Trump's notable allies including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R- Colo.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R- Ohio) and Rep. Andy Harris (R- Md.).
Luna, an Air Force veteran and former model, received endorsements from Trump and Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene when she was elected to represent Florida's 13th district in the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2022, defeating Democratic nominee and becoming the first Mexican-American woman elected to congress from the state.