Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) introduced on Monday that she is leaving the Home Freedom Caucus amid her battle with GOP management and hardline Republicans over her push to permit proxy voting for brand spanking new dad and mom.
In a letter to Freedom Caucus members, Luna stated the “respect” amongst lawmakers within the group had been “shattered last week” as some conservatives tried to thwart her effort to carry a vote on parental proxy voting.
Luna accused Freedom Caucus members of threatening to “halt floor proceedings indefinitely” if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) didn’t change Home guidelines to dam her push.
“With a heavy heart, I am resigning from the Freedom Caucus,” Luna wrote within the letter obtained by The Hill. “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.”
The Home Freedom Caucus declined to remark.
The announcement, to make sure, didn’t come as a shock, since Luna signaled final week that she would doubtless depart the hardline conservative group amid her dispute with a lot of its members. Monday’s letter, nevertheless, makes that transfer official, and is the most recent escalation within the battle over parental proxy voting.
Luna efficiently executed a discharge petition for Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s (D-Colo.) decision that will permit members who give delivery or lawmakers whose spouses give delivery to pick out one other member to vote for them for 12 weeks. Pettersen gave delivery to a son in January and has introduced him to high-profile votes within the Capitol as he’s weeks outdated, whereas Luna had a son in August 2023 as she was serving Congress.
Luna gathered 218 signatures for the petition — together with from 11 different Republicans — sufficient to ship the laws to the ground regardless of management’s opposition. Since then, Johnson and his lieutenants have been trying to find methods to cease the decision from reaching the ground, as prime lawmakers argue that proxy voting is unconstitutional.
One thought being floated is including language to “turn off” the privilege that will power management to think about the proxy voting laws, which might doubtless contain including it to an unrelated procedural decision. If that path is utilized, Luna and her discharge petition co-signers must stay united and defeat the procedural hurdle, both by voting it down or working to power the vote one other approach.
The Home Guidelines Committee was scheduled to fulfill Monday afternoon to debate laws for the week.
In her letter, Luna accused hardline Republicans of getting “threatened the Speaker, voting to halt floor proceedings indefinitely—regardless of the legislation at stake, including President Trump’s agenda—unless he altered the rules to block my discharge petition.”
She additionally alleged that Freedom Caucus members on the Home Guidelines Committee — there are three, Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) — of pushing to “change our rules of governance by trying my petition to a rule that would kill it and attaching it to the SAVE Act.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The laws is slated to obtain a vote on the Home flooring this week.
“The intent was clear: to misrepresent me and the members supporting this pro-life, pro-family initiative—one of the most significant in congressional history—as obstructing the President and opposing election integrity,” Luna wrote. “This tactic was not just a betrayal of trust; it was a descent into the very behavior we have long condemned—a practice that we, as a group, have repeatedly criticized leadership for allowing.”
“To those involved, I ask: Why?” Luna added. “Why abandon the principles we’ve championed and resort to such conduct? The irony in all of this is that I Have never voted by proxy, yet one of our own on the Rules Committee that is so adamantly opposed has done so over 30 times.”
Along with her letter to Freedom Caucus members, Luna additionally penned a notice to all Home Republicans airing her allegations concerning techniques utilized by hardline conservatives to halt her discharge petition. She referred to as the actions — significantly the trouble involving the SAVE Act — “a disgraceful betrayal.”
“The intent is clear: to misrepresent me and supporters of this pro-life, pro-family initiative—one of the most significant in congressional history—as obstructing the President’s agenda and opposing election integrity,” Luna wrote. “This is a disgraceful betrayal, a return to the manipulative tactics we have condemned, and the 119th Congress aimed to leave behind.”
“I cannot remain in a group that would smear me as being against election integrity and extort the Speaker to derail a just cause,” she later added. “This undermines our integrity and the future of this body. Supporting female representation and new families is not a fringe issue—it is a cornerstone of a vibrant, representative Congress.”
Emily Brooks contributed.
