New Jersey Democrat-turn-Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said he will object to the certification of Electoral College votes in Congress on January 6, The Hill reports.
In an interview with The Press of Atlantic City Van Drew said: “I won’t be voting to certify the electors. It’s what I’ve talked about all along. There has been … a disrespect of millions of Americans who really do believe that something’s wrong. It’s not a matter of who would win or lose — maybe the results would be the same — but we should abide by the rule of law.”
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Van Drew won New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district as a Democrat but switch party in 2019 to Republican. He was re-elected to a second term in Congress as a Republican after fending off a challenge from Democrat Amy Kennedy.
Van Drew now joins a growing list of House Republicans who announce that they will be challenging the electoral college results on January 6.
They will be joined by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley who announced on Wednesday that he will be challenging the results in the Senate.
“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on Jan. 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” Hawley said in statement. “At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act.”
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The move will trigger a debate and individual votes on election results, which Republican Senate leadership was hoping to avoid. It would put a number of GOP incumbents up for re-election in 2022 in a difficult spot. They can either support Trump and his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, all of which have been thrown out in court and many senators have publicly dismissed, or break with him and face the possibility of getting primaried.
