Democrat Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) did the right thing by advocating for a vote on a “disapproval resolution” against one of her leftist colleagues, but now she must face the consequences.
The latest drama among the House Democratic Caucus centers around the resolution that passed in the lower chamber on Tuesday. In a surprising turn, 23 Democrats voted with Republicans, resulting in a vote count of 236 in favor, 183 against, and 4 abstentions. This incident was particularly humiliating for Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (IL-04) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), who had urged his caucus to oppose the resolution.
In summary, Gluesenkamp Perez was angered enough to call for a resolution because Garcia manipulated the situation to ensure that his chief of staff, Patty Garcia (no relation), would not face any opponents in the primary or general election. This occurred when he announced his retirement due to health and family concerns just one week after filing to run again, and one day after Patty Garcia submitted her nominating petition to run for his seat—just minutes before the November 3rd deadline.
Gluesenkamp Perez represents a swing district, and while I haven’t heard of any primary challenges against her, there are rumors that the House Progressive Caucus is discussing potential retaliation for her ‘crime’ of exposing the duplicity of her party regarding the issue of “defending democracy”:
Congressional Progressive Caucus members are privately discussing introducing a retaliatory measure against Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) over her efforts to rebuke Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.), Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The move would escalate simmering tensions between Gluesenkamp Perez and her Democratic colleagues that some lawmakers say is ruining what they had hoped would be a week of unity.
“This is really just unfortunate that we’re dealing with this,” Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) told Axios.
“We have all these other issues in the world we have to deal with … this is really local politics and I don’t know that it has a place here,” he added.What we’re hearing: Progressive Caucus members are eyeing a resolution that would accuse Perez of lying about not taking corporate PAC donations, according to a lawmaker and a senior aide familiar with the matter.
Gluesenkamp Perez is speaking out despite concerns of retaliation. She revealed that some House Democrats have actually congratulated Rep. Garcia for his actions:
Just hours before the filing deadline, Representative Garcia’s chief of staff submitted the paperwork to run with at least 2500 signatures attached to it. And Chuy Garcia’s signature was the very first one listed in the petition. He had at least three days of work that he is publicly acknowledged, where he knew that his chief was going to be running against him. And he did not communicate his intention to retire.
You know, one of the disturbing things is that, like, immediately after the news broke about how Chuy had basically chosen a successor, I saw a lot of members congratulating him on how clever and slick it was. And I think that galvanized me more to say that this is not something to be proud of or to emulate or copy, that we have to think critically about — like what use is it to win an election at all costs, even your own integrity if you are in that process destroying Americans’ confidence in government?
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez says that Democrats were congratulating Rep. Chuy Garcia on rigging the primary to replace him by ensuring his Chief of Staff would be the only person on the ballot.
So much for that whole "democracy" thing. pic.twitter.com/9Sy0zqUxS4
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 19, 2025
I may not agree with Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez on much, but I respect her for standing her ground on this issue.
