A newly-elected Democrat has had to take to Twitter to defend his decision to vote with House Republicans on a resolution tied to changing policing laws in Washington D.C. which has put him at odds with some of his constituents.
According to a report from the Journal-Star, Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL) was one of 14 Democrats who joined with the Republican party majority on a resolution to block the bill. The Journal Star reports, "Republicans hope will nullify a local D.C. policing reform that would ban the use of chokeholds by police, require body camera footage to be released after violent incident and make police discipline records more publicly available."
Confronted on Twitter by a constituent who wrote "As someone who voted for you and lives in your district. That is an interesting and terrible vote you made there. Care to explain?" Sorenson attempted to explain that the bill had no chance of passing and that he feared sticking with the Democrats would be used against him during his re-election.
"Google 'messaging bills.' I’ve been in contact with the White House and this bill has no chance of being signed. R’s know that and now they can’t use this vote against me in the next election," he wrote back and included a link.
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Another Twitter user challenged that assertion, writing: "So the message you’re sending is that you’ll vote for stuff you don’t believe in as long as you can get away with it and it keeps you in office? That’s a hell of a message."
That prompted the freshman lawmaker to write back, "The people in my district know who I am. I hope you’ll consider running for office where you are," before adding, "I’ll always tell it like it is. The R’s are specifically wasting our time with these bills, trying to divide us by going extreme and avoiding the real problems the people sent us here to do. If you have a chance, watch the last 15 seconds of the floor speech I gave this week."
The Democratic lawmaker added, "I’ll always be forthright. I spoke with the White House and was assured it would never be signed. I also waited until the R’s got to 218 before I voted, knowing that my no-vote wouldn’t have kept it in our chamber. We frontliners often walk tightropes others do not."
