My Conversation with Chrissy Houlahan

In this morning’s post, I polled about whether I should publish a blog post that would offend some people. At the time, I didn’t know I’d be writing THIS post. The planned offensive post is scheduled for Monday morning (with part two on Tuesday).

I expect a lot of blowback on this post. As of now, 5:30 pm ET, Friday 7 March 2025, we still have the First Amendment, and so these are my thoughts - I expect I’ll be hearing yours soon.

Yesterday, Representative Houlahan voted with 9 other Democrats to censure Representative Al Green. I disagreed with her vote, called her office, left a voice mail with my thoughts, and requested a response. Soon after, Chrissy called me.

In the interest of full disclosure, the Congresswoman is not just my representative, but we are friends.

She wanted to explain her position and thought process, even before the Inky published. In the years I have known her, I have never heard such pain in her voice.

Chrissy explained that this was one of the most difficult votes she had taken because in many ways, she wanted to vote “no” and vacillated on which button to click. She thought what Congressman Green did was right, that Medicaid is at risk, and that he shouldn’t be singled out when there were so many things that so many Congressmen and women have done that is worthy of censure. After the vote, she had words with Mike Johnson and told him that he should censure everyone who was guilty of not just a lack of decorum, but far worse things. He told her that he’d have to censure half the House, and she told him he should.

As an institutionalist, for her, this was a last straw.

It was not a political decision. Had it been, she would have voted with the party. Rather, it was, for her, one of conscience.

Do I agree with her vote? No. Would I have done the same thing? No, when Al Green got up, I would have stood, and when he was ousted, I would have been right behind him. I would have been in the well when he was supposed to be censured (which never actually came off because of the ruckus in the well).

BUT

Unlike the people who are crying “primary her”, “I’ll never vote for her again” “how could she?” I have a different take.

The photo at the top of this post is Chrissy today, traveling as part of a CODEL to Gitmo. Because despite what happened yesterday, she had a job to do.

Being a member of Congress is much more than voting. There is the committee work, the CODELs, the constituent work, and above all serving their District.

Over her tenure in the House, Chrissy has brought both jobs and funds to the 6th Congressional District. She has developed staff who provide excellent constituent services. That work has resulted in $50 million in direct federal benefits payments back to constituents. She personally brought $16 million for 23 local, community projects to the District.

Chrissy has sponsored 90 bills, and co-sponsored 1,275. She currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee, as well as the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. She is a co-founder of the Women in STEM Caucus, which encourages more women to work in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields. And I could go on.

I hear your anger over her vote, I honestly do. Chrissy Houlahan is principled and thoughtful, and even so, made what I consider a very rare error in judgement. Personally, I grant her grace on this one, although I am terribly disappointed. Because people sometimes make mistakes, but when you balance **A** mistake against all her other votes, against the work she has accomplished for us, her constituents, it’s no contest. I fully expect that she will stand with the party moving forward, especially on voting against the budget.

I expect there will be comments.

See you Monday when I’ll REALLY offend you.