By Joshua Arnold

In a 236-183 vote, 23 House Democrats joined nearly all House Republicans on Monday to pass a resolution condemning Rep. Jesús G. “Chuy” García (D-Ill.) for a bait-and-switch designed to guarantee that his handpicked successor would take over his seat. The Democrat-sponsored resolution exposed cracks within the party’s coalition as they try to unite for crucial legislative fights — cracks on issues as basic as popular representation or, as their party likes to put it, small-d “democracy.”

Garcia’s reasons for retiring are honorable. His office explained that his decision was “based on his health, his wife’s worsening condition, and his responsibility to the grandchildren he is raising after the death of his daughter.” At 69, Garcia faces a potentially life-threatening heart condition, and his wife of nearly 50 years is in deteriorating condition due to multiple sclerosis, NBC News reports.

Yet this aging couple approaching the sunset of their lives also faces the full workload of raising four of their grandchildren, including an eight-year-old boy whom they just formally adopted. The children’s mother, Rosa, who originally “joined our family as a young girl who had been in the foster care system,” died in 2023 at the age of 28.

Yet Garcia’s manner of retiring was less than forthright. On October 27, Garcia filed petitions with the Illinois State Board of Elections to run for reelection in Illinois’s 4th Congressional District. That was just over a week before the filing deadline, at 5 p.m. on November 5. Hours before the deadline, Jesús Garcia’s chief of staff, Patty Garcia (no relation) also filed to run, with petitions collected by the congressman’s own campaign operatives. The next day, November 6, Rep. Garcia announced his plan to retire, saying that he would withdraw his nominating petitions to run.

With these moves, Garcia used the power of incumbency to prevent other prospective candidates from entering the Democratic primary. The only candidate to do so was his own chief of staff, who clearly had insider information. Garcia then withdrew himself from the race just after the filing deadline, denying any other Democrats a chance to enter the contest and clearing the way for his preferred replacement to run unopposed in the primary.

Because Jesús Garcia and Patty Garcia share the same last name, less-informed voters in his district may not even realize that the “Garcia” running on the Democratic ticket next November is a different person than the current incumbent.

Garcia has publicly acknowledged his actions, but he insists that everything he did was legal.

These machinations — not for nothing is the Chicago Democratic Party called a “machine” — did not sit well with some of Garcia’s House colleagues. Last week, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) introduced a resolution (H. RES. 878) “disapproving” of Garcia’s behavior as “beneath the dignity of his office and incompatible with the spirit of the United States Constitution.” The resolution, which carried no concrete penalties, accused Garcia of “undermining the process of a free and fair election.”

Perez introduced the resolution as a privileged motion, meaning it had to receive a vote in the full House within two business days. Democratic leaders in the House were surprised by the motion and tried to derail it.

In a floor speech, Minority Deputy Whip Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) cried, “Shame on you for deciding that this is [an issue for] you, who have no idea about the role that Chuy Garcia has played in the city of Chicago and continues to play in the city of Chicago.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also let it be known that those voting for the resolution would be breaking with his leadership. “I do not support the so-called resolution of disapproval, and I strongly support Congressman Chuy García,” he declared. “He’s been a progressive champion for disenfranchised communities for decades, including during his time in Congress. And he’s made life better for the American people.”

Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Minority Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) issued another statement of opposition to the resolution.

On Monday night, Clark offered a motion to table the resolution, but Gluesenkamp Perez and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) joined Republicans in voting that motion down, 206-211. The final vote saw even more Democrats break with their party leaders, with nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers publicly expressing disapproval with their colleague’s Chicagoan tactics.

Thus, the vote shows ongoing cracks in the Democratic coalition. Most Democrats, including party leadership, stuck by the beleaguered member, despite his apparently manipulative political dealing, calculating with their base that the fight against Trump was most important. However, whether through principled veneration for democracy or political vulnerability to defeat, a handful of Democrats chose to disapprove of one of their own colleagues. It was only a handful, but it was enough to send a rattle of disunity up the party’s spine.

After losing the shutdown fight, Democrats hoped to regain their mojo by forcing through the discharge petition demanding that the Trump administration release unclassified documents related to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. But, in the end, that vote was nearly unanimous in both chambers, and the Garcia disapproval motion came in the same evening, provoking bitter disagreement in what was supposed to be a unifying moment.

The moment is also one when Americans’ trust in their congressional representatives sits at a historic low, and the Garcia gaffe is hardly calculated to rebuild their confidence. “Illinois has a long history of backroom deals and last-minute maneuvers that undermine people’s confidence in politics and politicians,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, another Illinois Democrat. “I believe such dealings are a disservice to constituents and yet another symptom of a political system that desperately needs repair to restore the trust of the people.”

But Schneider did not consider this the moment “to restore the trust of the people.” Like many of his colleagues, he voted against the disapproval resolution for taking up “precious legislative time,” he said. The serious leadership necessary to unite a coalition remains in short supply among the House minority.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.