Republican Reps. Jeff Van Drew, center, and Rep. Chris Smith, right, listen to a businessman at a reception prior to the 2020 New Jersey Chamber of Commerce congressional dinner in Washington. Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media
When the U.S. House in January 2021 voted to impeach Donald Trump for an unprecedented second time on charges that he incited the insurrection at the Capitol, Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith voted with most of their party in opposition.
When the House in June voted to form a Democratic-run congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot after Senate Republicans blocked an independent bipartisan panel, Van Drew and Smith again voted with most of their party against it.
But when it came to Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure law, both Smith and Van Drew bucked their leadership and voted yes.
The two New Jersey congressmen again were among the 10 House Republicans least likely to vote with a majority of their party against a majority of Democrats, according to CQ Roll Call’s annual vote studies.
Van Drew ranked fifth, defying the Republicans 19% of the time. Smith was sixth with 18%.
Both Republican representatives said they were doing just that: Representing their constituents.
“I vote my district and I vote my state,” said Smith, R-4th Dist. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Van Drew, who switched to the GOP after voting against impeaching Trump the first time, also was among the top dissenters when he was a member of the Democratic caucus.
“I’m always trying to vote what’s really best for my people, my district,” Van Drew said. “There’s a lot of uniqueness to South Jersey. What’s most important is not representing a party. It’s not representing the leadership. What’s most important is representing good conservative values and the people of our district and state and nation.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who represents Bucks County just across the Delaware River from New Jersey, voted with his party the least: 66% He was followed by Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., with 72%; Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., 76%, and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., 79%. Katko, Kinzinger and Upton all voted to impeach Trump.
A year earlier, Smith and Van Drew were ranked second and third right after Fitzpatrick.
Smith’s and Van Drew’s support of the infrastructure bill drew condemnation as “traitors” from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
Smith, but not Van Drew, broke with his party and voted in February 2021 to strip Greene of her committee assignments for reportedly endorsing executing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and embracing the QAnon conspiracy theory that the Anti-Defamation League said contains “marked undertones of anti-Semitism and xenophobia.”
And Trump called for Republicans to challenge Smith for his party’s nomination this year, even as he endorsed Van Drew when the congressman held a fundraiser at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Smith and Van Drew also were among the 10 Republicans who most backed President Joe Biden, supporting him 40% of the time, according to the CQ Roll Call studies.
On the Democratic side, the New Jersey lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted with a majority of their party against a majority of Republicans more than 95% of the time. And they all supported fellow Democrat Biden at least 98% of the time.
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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him at @JDSalant.
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