Rep. Sharice Davids of Johnson County on Tuesday voted with other Democrats in an unsuccessful effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The lame-duck House, back in session a week after the consequential Nov. 3 midterm election, voted Tuesday evening on a Republican-sponsored motion to send articles of impeachment to the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee, effectively killing the impeachment push.
All Democrats present in Washington, including Davids, voted against the motion, along with one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the author of the articles of impeachment against Hegseth.
The motion passed 211-204, with 210 Republicans and an independent voting for it. According to a roll call, 18 representatives — including 11 Democrats — missed the vote.
“My job is to uphold the Constitution, protect our troops, and keep Kansas families safe, which means restoring Congress’s constitutional authority over military action and ensuring no more families pay the price for reckless, unauthorized conflicts,” Davids said in an emailed statement on Wednesday, explaining her vote.
Davids’ office also cited a figure, originally published by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, that said the average American household has paid more than $2,000 in extra costs since the start of the war with Iran earlier this year, mostly in higher energy prices.
Kansas’ three other U.S. representatives, all Republicans — Ron Estes, Terry Mann and Derek Schmidt — all voted for the motion.
On the Missouri side, that state’s two Democratic Congressional representatives, Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City and Wesley Bell, both voted with Davids on rejecting the motion to kill the impeachment process.
Missouri’s six Republican representatives all voted for it.
On Monday, Massie, who was ousted in a Republican primary earlier this year and is serving out the remainder of his term, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, whom the White House refers to as the “Secretary of War,” a department name change that has not been congressionally authorized.
Massie accused Hegseth of violating the 1973 War Powers Resolution by starting the ongoing Iran conflict without a congressional declaration of war. The articles also cite extrajudicial killings in operations in the Pacific Ocean aimed at targeting drug traffickers.
“We’re not indicting him for being bad at his job,” Massie said Monday, as reported by Time magazine. “The argument here is that he’s broken laws and he’s violated the Constitution.”
Hegseth held his first press briefing in months on Tuesday, following Massie’s introduction of the impeachment articles, calling Massie’s move “a farce” and “a stunt,” according to NBC News.
He called the operations named in the articles, including the war with Iran and boat attacks in the Pacific, “lawful” and “ordered by the commander in Chief,” President Trump.
The chief Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, also released a statement on social media, claiming “total victory” over the impeachment push.
TOTAL VICTORY!
The referral of these baseless impeachment articles to the House Judiciary Committee marks total victory for Secretary Hegseth, the Department of War, and the American warfighter. From the beginning, this effort has been a political exercise devoid of merit, evidence, or seriousness. It collapses under the weight of Secretary Hegseth’s record of restoring the warrior ethos, delivering results, and putting the mission first. The American people see through it.
We will not indulge the political theater driven by a disgruntled soon-to-be former congressman and others who have chosen grandstanding over governing. We look forward to ending this sham impeachment in the committee room, where facts will continue to prevail and this distraction can be put to rest.
We will always stand tall and fight to defend the Republic!
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) November 10, 2026
If the motion on Tuesday had been approved, it would not have impeached Hegseth. Instead, if it had failed, as Democrats voted for, it would have meant lawmakers would have had to debate the articles of impeachment and then vote on them.
Davids last week cruised to reelection for her fifth term in Congress, winning Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District centered around Johnson County by a 22-percentage-point margin, according to unofficial final results.
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