Who are the 3 House Republicans who voted against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas?

WASHINGTON – House Republicans failed Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an embarrassing setback for GOP leaders, who have already been struggling to pass key legislative priorities.

The articles to impeach Mayorkas failed by a razor-thin margin of 214-216. Three Republicans opposed impeaching the secretary over concerns the GOP simply harbors policy disagreements with Mayorkas over how to address the crisis at the southern border.

House Republican conference Vice Chair Blake Moore, R-Utah, technically voted against impeaching Mayorkas. But he was in support of the effort and swapped his vote at the last minute as a procedural tactic, allowing House leaders to bring the articles of impeachment to the floor again in the future.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., were the three GOP lawmakers who voted against impeaching Mayorkas. Here’s who they are.

Ken Buck

Buck has frequently been at odds with GOP leadership and told reporters leading up to the vote he did not think there were grounds to impeach Mayorkas.

“To be clear, Secretary Mayorkas has completely failed at his job. He is incompetent. He is an embarrassment. And he will most likely be remembered as the worst secretary of Homeland Security in the history of the United States,” Buck wrote in an opinion column on The Hill.

But, Buck added, “maladministration or incompetence does not rise to what our founders considered an impeachable offense.”

Mike Gallagher

Gallagher was a surprise vote against impeachment on Tuesday.

House Republicans held a weekly closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning where Gallagher expressed concerns about the validity of impeaching Mayorkas. The Wisconsin Republican later left the meeting and declined to tell reporters his thoughts on the upcoming vote, but he ultimately was one of the deciding votes to tank the effort.

Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee Mark Green, R-Tenn., was seen on the House floor attempting to convince Gallagher to switch his vote, but those efforts later proved fruitless.

Impeaching Mayorkas, Gallagher said in a statement after the vote, "will only further pry open the Pandora's box of perpetual impeachment."

Tom McClintock

McClintock was one of several undecided votes heading into the impeachment vote but made his position clear on Tuesday morning, releasing a lengthy, 10-page statement echoing his colleagues' concerns that Republicans lacked grounds to impeach Mayorkas.

The crisis at the border, McClintock said, can only be solved after the 2024 elections to “replace the entire administration and that can only be done by the American people at the ballot box.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Which Republicans voted against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas?