Late in the afternoon as attention was focused on whether Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) would retain his House seat in Kentucky, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) offered SJ Res. 185 to the Senate floor for the eighth vote to require the 1973 Vote Powers Act.
The Resolution passed on a 50-47 vote with four Republicans voting in favor of War Powers while three GOP Senators did not cast their vote. The four Republicans were Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
A two-term incumbent, Cassidy had just been resoundingly defeated in a Republican Senate Primary in Louisiana, thereby deprived of a re-election campaign to retain his Senate seat. Cassidy, the latest target of President Trump’s ire when he failed to support the President’s realignment of the state’s election map, was defeated by Rep. Julia Letlow (La.) who was endorsed by Trump.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D) called Cassidy a ‘very principled conservative and a very independent thinker” who was Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In 2021, Cassidy voted to convict Trump on a impeachment charge citing the January 6 insurrection.
Trump’s Truth Social post noted on Cassidy’s defeat that “his disloyalty to the man that got him elected is now part of legend and it is nice to see that his political career is OVER.”
In addition, GOP Senators who did not vote on Kaine’s resolution were Sen. Tillis (NC), Sen. Cornyn (Texas) and Sen. Tuberville (AL.). Cornyn had just lost Trump’s endorsement to State Attorney General Paxton in his Senate re-election primary in Texas.
The House of Representatives has yet to approve the War Powers Act which would require a direct confrontation with the President over the Iran war.