In a 37-1 vote on January 19, the Virginia Senate chose to remove Republican state Senator Amanda Chase from her committee assignment. Chase was the only person who voted “nay,” and one other senator, Joe Morrissey, chose not to cast a vote.
Chase had already lost three committee assignments in 2019 after choosing to leave the Republican caucus.
“I have not left the Republican party. I am still a Republican, they are not,” Chase said in an interview, referring to the GOP senators who voted to remove her from the committee.
This move came soon after multiple Democrat lawmakers moved to censure Chase, alleging in their resolution that she instigated an “insurrection against the United States.”
In a party-line vote on January 19, the resolution was advanced to the Senate floor by the Senate Privileges and Election committee.
Democrats in the Virginia State Senate claim that Chase helped empower “a failed coup d’état” at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on January 6. They are calling on Chase to resign from her office.
Local news outlet WRIC reports: “Getting two-thirds of the chamber to vote and expel Chase is unlikely so Democrats have opted for a formal statement of disapproval with the censure, which only needs a majority of senators to approve.”