How many Republican senators voted to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial?
Executive summary
Seven Republican senators voted to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial in February 2021, joining all Senate Democrats and independents to produce a 57–43 "guilty" tally that fell short of the two‑thirds threshold required for conviction and removal [1] [2]. The defecting Republicans—Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey—represented an unusually bipartisan rebuke of a president by members of his own party [3] [4].
1. The raw numbers and the constitutional bar
The Senate vote on February 13, 2021 recorded 57 senators voting "guilty" and 43 voting "not guilty," meaning the chamber acquitted Trump because the Constitution requires a two‑thirds majority—67 votes in the 100‑member Senate—to convict and remove a president [1] [5]. The 57 guilty votes included all Democrats and independents who caucus with them plus seven Republicans, marking the most bipartisan conviction vote in a presidential impeachment to date even though it did not meet the constitutional threshold [1] [2].
2. Who crossed the aisle and why — the seven Republicans named
The seven Republicans who voted to convict were Richard Burr (N.C.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), and Pat Toomey (Pa.), a roster reported consistently across major outlets and compendiums of the trial [3] [4] [6]. Reporting and post‑vote statements show different rationales: some cited the evidence and constitutional duty, others referenced Trump’s responsibility for events of January 6; Cassidy publicly said the president was guilty after criticizing his own party’s handling of the defense, and Burr described his decision as not made lightly [2] [7].
3. Political context and consequences inside the GOP
Coverage at the time emphasized the political peril for Republicans who broke with Trump: state and national party organizations swiftly rebuked some defectors, and commentators noted that several of the senators who voted guilty were not facing immediate reelection—Burr and Toomey had said they would retire, while others had recently secured new terms—factors that observers linked to the willingness to cross party lines [3] [8] [9]. The reaction underscores a split between institutional concerns about the riot and party loyalty dynamics, which outlets like AP and NPR characterized as revealing the costs of confronting Trump's base [2] [4].
4. The procedural dispute that framed many Republican votes
A persistent argument among opponents of the trial was that it was unconstitutional to try a former president; that procedural question shaped some Republican votes to acquit even as others focused on the merits [1]. Senate leaders and analysts recorded that several Republicans framed their votes around process rather than exoneration on facts, while figures such as Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell privately and publicly acknowledged Trump’s responsibility for the Capitol attack even as he stopped short of endorsing conviction in the chamber’s final tally [1] [10].
5. Why the “7” matters historically and as reporting shorthand
News organizations and encyclopedic entries immediately seized on the number seven because it was unprecedented in modern times for so many members of the president’s party to vote to convict; outlets from NPR to CBS, AP and The Independent used the same count and listed the same senators, which solidified the fact pattern in public memory [4] [7] [11]. These consistent reports make the answer—seven Republican senators voted to convict—straightforward, though the broader story includes constitutional debate, individualized explanations from each senator, and partisan fallout that reporting continued to track afterward [2] [12].