By Matt Rooney
_
A majority of U.S. House Republicans have signed onto a brief backing Texas’ Supreme Court election lawsuit.
Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02) did sign onto the amicus (“friendly”) brief in support of the challenge launched by Texas and joined by the attorneys general of numerous other sates. New Jersey’s other Republican Congressman Chris Smith (R, NJ-04) had not signed onto the most recent version of the brief as of this writing.
–
Smith – one of the U.S. Congress’s longest serving members – is considered one of the caucus’s more moderate members. Van Drew has been more vocally pro-Trump, even pledging his “undying” support to President Trump’s agenda after initially deciding to switch parties last December.
“This brief amicus curiae presents the concern of amici as Members of Congress, shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections,” the brief’s authors explained.
Still, some Republicans have pushed back arguing that the Texas suit is an afront to federalism insofar as it attempts to dictate to states how to conduct their own elections.
Smith was reelected in November with nearly 60% of the vote while Van Drew won a 6-point victory over Amy Kennedy (an in law, not a Kennedy by birth) despite being decisively outspent.
_
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Congressman Van Drew hadn’t signed onto the brief. In fact, we were citing an earlier version of the brief available on the Supreme Court’s website which did not yet include his signature. A corrected brief was filed today which includes additional members (17 additional House Republicans) including Van Drew. We apologize for the error.
–
