House Republicans who come from congressional districts that voted in favor of Hillary Clinton were more likely to criticize President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, while Republicans representing districts that supported Trump were more likely to back the order or remain silent on it, a Vox analysis shows.
We’ve been tracking how members of Congress are responding to Trump’s immigration order, and we combined their responses with data released Tuesday by the Daily Kos to chart House representatives by their margin of victory and Trump’s.
We categorized statements as “critical” if they condemned the order, directly asked for exemptions on military allies, or used strong language regarding the rollout (“unacceptable”, “violating our nation’s values”, “overly broad”). We categorized statements as “approval” if they supported the order, downplayed the rollout’s confusion, or expressed satisfaction after more statements were issued. Statements that supported heightened security generally but offered milder criticism of the execution or expressed concern for green card holders were labeled as “unclear.”
As of Wednesday evening, 40 percent of House Republicans have expressed support for the immigration order; 97 percent of them are from districts that voted for Trump. Nearly half the Republicans in the House remain silent or have issued statements that take no clear position; 93 percent of them come from districts that voted for Trump. Only 12 percent of House Republicans have been critical of the order, though the majority of them — 59 percent — come from districts that voted for Trump.
All but three House Democrats spoke out against the ban. Only two have not issued public statements: Vicente Gonzalez (Texas) and David Scott (Georgia). And Rep. Collin Peterson is the only House Democrat who made a statement that wasn’t openly critical; he represents Minnesota’s 7th District, which claims the highest margin of victory for Trump — at 30.8 percent over Clinton — among districts that voted for a Democratic House representative.
The Senate was a different story. Every Republican who remained silent, expressed neutrality, or praised the order represented a state that voted for Trump. But so did more than three quarters of the GOP senators who opposed the order.
Every Democrat in the Senate, including the two Independents that caucus with them, condemned Trump’s immigration order, regardless of Trump’s victory margin in their state.
You can view the data below, separated by chamber and party. Click on the table headers with arrows to sort by column.
