Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna tore into the House Freedom Caucus as she resigned from the ultraconservative group on Monday, accusing some members of backroom dealings and betraying its core values.
Her departure follows a bitter clash with House GOP leadership and members of the Freedom Caucus over her proposal to allow new parents in the House to vote remotely.
In a blistering letter addressed to her colleagues, Luna, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said her colleagues’ move to block her effort “shattered” the mutual respect that has guided the caucus.
“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,” she wrote.
Accusing a small faction of the caucus of smearing her, Luna said, “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.”
In March, Luna bypassed Republican leadership by crossing the aisle and securing signatures from more than 200 House Democrats and 11 Republicans on a “discharge petition” to force a floor vote on the proxy voting resolution, which she framed as a “pro-life, pro-family initiative.”
The resolution, led by Democrat Rep. Brittney Petersen, is set for a vote this week and would allow new parents in the House to designate another member to vote on their behalf for 12 weeks after birth.
But Republican leaders, pressured by hard-line Freedom Caucus members, have sought to kill the measure.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for young parents to be able to participate in the process,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after discouraging Republicans from supporting Luna in a meeting last week. “But proxy voting, in my view, is unconstitutional.”
In response, Luna posted three documents on X showing Johnson had himself voted by proxy in 2022, writing, “@SpeakerJohnson is a kind man and his heart is in the right spot but he’s wrong on proxy voting for new parents.”
Democrats instituted proxy voting during the pandemic, but Republicans ended the practice after retaking the House in 2023.
Speaking to reporters, Luna, who became a mother in August 2023, later warned Republicans: “If they want to play hardball, let’s play f---ing hardball.”
House leaders tried to shut down her voting effort on Tuesday by advancing a measure that would have killed her discharge petition and blocked similar proposals in the future.
The plan backfired, however, as eight House Republicans joined Luna and every Democrat to defeat the measure 206-222. The eight Republicans who joined Luna were all men.
The vote upended the House GOP’s agenda for the week, as the measure had bundled the blocking of Luna’s bill with other Republican priorities.
