
Most House Republicans most likely to buck party leadership and side with Democrats are leaving Congress, raising questions about what bipartisanship will look like in the next Congress.
A MarketWatch analysis of roll call vote data collected by GovTrack found that four of the five House Republicans who have broken off from a Republican majority to side with the majority of Democrats are leaving at the end of their term.
That includes Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who has broken off from the Republican majority to side with the Democratic majority 72 times this term and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who has sided with the Democratic majority against the Republican majority 62 times this term.
Kinzinger, one of ten Republicans to vote for former President Donald Trump’s impeachment, announced his retirement last October and has since launched the political action committee Country First, which aims to put “country over party” and “defeat toxic tribalism.”
“There’s little to no desire to bridge our differences, and unity is no longer a word we use,” Kinzinger said in his announcement. “It has also become increasingly obvious that in order to break the narrative, I cannot focus on both a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide.”
But that’s not to say there won’t be space for “breakout pragmatic policy” within large bills such as the National Defense Reauthorization Act, says Michele Stockwell, Senior Vice President and Executive Director of BPC Action at the Bipartisan Policy Center.