Which Republican House members crossed party lines to support impeachment and why?
Executive summary
Ten House Republicans crossed party lines to vote to impeach President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack; those Republicans said they were acting on evidence the president’s rhetoric and conduct amounted to “incitement of insurrection” and a breach of oath [1]. In later impeachment-related maneuvers in 2025 — including H.Res. 537 and H.Res. 353 — Republicans largely opposed or tabled articles and many Republican-led efforts targeted federal judges instead; the House vote to table H.Res. 537 passed 344–79, reflecting broad bipartisan opposition to that specific Democratic-led impeachment push [2] [3].
1. A discrete group broke with the party after Jan. 6 — and why the record highlights “10”
The clearest, best-documented instance when GOP House members voted to impeach Trump came in January 2021, when 10 House Republicans voted to impeach for “incitement of insurrection” after a pro‑Trump mob attacked the Capitol; reporters and the members themselves cited the violence and the president’s role in provoking the crowd as decisive [1]. Contemporary coverage framed the GOP defections as rare and consequential: ten Republicans was the largest crossover in history for a president’s own party on impeachment [1].
2. What those Republicans said — motives and public explanations
Reporting at the time emphasized that several Republicans who broke ranks cited constitutional duty, truth-telling and direct evidence linking the president’s statements to the events of Jan. 6 as their reasons for voting to impeach [1]. Some members also referenced threats to their families and pressure from constituents as factors in their deliberations, according to contemporaneous accounts [1].
3. Subsequent impeachment efforts show partisan fault lines and different targets
By mid‑2025 the House saw a new wave of impeachment activity — some resolutions targeted President Trump again (H.Res. 537 and H.Res. 353), while other Republican efforts sought to impeach judges after unfavorable rulings. The text of H.Res. 537 presented multiple articles against the president, including claims of abuse of power and violations of war powers [2]. Republican House members, however, pursued impeachment resolutions aimed at judges they argued had thwarted the administration’s policies, a strategy that legal and institutional critics warned would break long-standing norms [4].
4. How the 2025 floor politics played out: tabling, votes and numbers
When Rep. Al Green’s H.Res. 537 came to the floor in June 2025, the House voted 344–79 to table the measure — a procedural move that effectively blocked consideration at that time. The vote showed substantial bipartisan alignment against advancing those specific articles: 128 Democrats joined Republicans in tabling the resolution [3] [5]. Coverage of the roll call stresses that the House’s Republican majority and Democratic maneuvering produced a mixed outcome for impeachment proponents [3] [5].
5. Competing viewpoints in sources: duty, politics, and institutional norms
Democratic proponents framed impeachment as an accountability mechanism and response to alleged presidential wrongdoing [2]. Republicans and some institutionalists warned impeachment should not be used for policy disputes or as retaliation for court rulings, defending judicial independence and warning against eroding norms [4]. Coverage of the 2025 efforts notes both the legal arguments in the resolutions and the political calculations — including that the Republican‑controlled House “doesn’t have the votes to impeach” in certain scenarios and that the Republican Senate lacked a two‑thirds majority to convict [6] [7].
6. What the available reporting does not settle
Available sources do not list every individual name of the 10 Republicans in the January 2021 vote within this set of documents, nor do they provide detailed, individual statements from each member about their motives beyond the general reasons reported [1]. The sources also do not provide a comprehensive, definitive list of all Republicans who supported any 2025 impeachment article, beyond the aggregate vote counts on tabling and the texts of the resolutions [2] [3].
7. Takeaway: rare defections vs. persistent partisan tug-of-war
Historically, Republican defections to impeach a Republican president have been rare; the 10 GOP votes in 2021 were exceptional and rooted in the specific facts of Jan. 6 as described by reporters [1]. By 2025, impeachment again surfaced as a political tool — used both by Democrats to press accountability and by Republicans to target judges and Biden‑era decisions — producing contested claims about norms, motives and institutional limits [2] [4].