GOP Scores Bipartisan Win in Rejecting D.C.'s Illegal Noncitizen Voting Scheme

Republicans scored a major bipartisan victory Thursday in their effort to uphold the integrity of American elections and citizenship. More than 50 Democrats joined the GOP in passing a resolution to overturn a brazen attempt by Washington, D.C.'s local government to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.

The 260-162 vote represented a stinging rebuke of the District's flagrantly unconstitutional and anti-democratic law granting voting rights to non-U.S. citizens, including millions of illegal aliens. The decisive bipartisan majority affirmed that the sacred right of voting is inextricably linked to citizenship and preserving self-governance.

"Today's vote upheld a core principle of our republic - that the franchise must be jealously guarded and never extended to those who've shown contempt for our laws and sovereignty," said Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), who spearheaded the resolution effort. "It's a pivotal victory in the fight against radical open-borders activists seeking to dilute legitimate citizens' voices."

While D.C.'s overreach was particularly egregious, progressive enclaves across the country have been aggressively pushing to extend voting privileges to illegal immigrants and foreign nationals. The misguided efforts represented not only brazen law-breaking, but also a subversive attempt to permanently skew elections in Democrats' favor through importing new voters from their base.

Thankfully, core principles of citizenship and self-determination still resonate for many traditional Democrats averse to such anti-democratic power grabs. Over one-fifth of House Democrats recognized the nation's capital had gone too far and done violence to the sacred underpinnings of the American experiment.  

"Democrats enabled and emboldened this unconstitutional insanity. But in bucking their party's extremists, enough still exhibited political courage and fealty to foundational principles of self-governance," said Heritage Foundation legal expert Hans von Spakovsky.

The vote marked the first concrete legislative success for House Republicans in utilizing the Congressional Review Act to rein in rogue overreach from liberal cities and states. Several more resolutions targeting progressive localities' attempts to violate federal statutes are already teed up. 

While D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser vowed outrage and legal challenges, House conservatives cheered the will of the American people being decisively upheld. Noting the broad coalition arrayed against D.C.'s gambit - including civil rights icons and liberal constitutional scholars - they derided it as an illegal and unforced error by activist bureaucrats.

Of course, the fight to secure American elections now moves to the Senate, where Democrats remain defiant over Republican attempts to assert basic sovereignty over America's electoral processes. But for House Republicans pushing an existential "voter with a voice" message, Thursday's win - and the bonafide bipartisan coalition behind it - marked an auspicious start to protecting democracy itself.