The House voted 220-192 on Tuesday to adopt a Republican-led resolution condemning socialism and the Democratic Socialists of America. The vote fell largely along party lines after GOP leaders attached language to the resolution backing President Donald Trump’s priority voting rights legislation.

Introduced by Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO), the resolution “condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.”

However, the resolution also explicitly “calls for the enactment” of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — a priority for the president that would mandate proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

Seeking a clean vote denouncing the DSA without endorsing the election bill, a group of moderate Democrats — including Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Hillary Scholten (D-MI) — offered an amendment on Monday to strip out the SAVE Act language while preserving the anti-socialism provisions. However, the House Rules Committee declined to take up the amendment, forcing Democrats to vote on the combined GOP package.

Most Democrats opposed the measure due to the SAVE Act rider, though eight moderate lawmakers broke ranks to vote with Republicans in favor: Reps. Don Davis (D-NC), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), Jared Golden (D-ME), Darren Soto (D-FL), Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX). 

In addition, Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) voted present.

Several additional Democrats had expressed that they would support a clean resolution against socialism but asserted that they could not vote for a resolution that supports the SAVE Act. 

Gottheimer told Jewish Insider that the vote was a “missed opportunity,” arguing that the decision by Republicans to include the voting rights bill took away from the issue at hand.

“The missed opportunity was the fact that the right didn’t actually put up a piece of legislation that was focused on the point at hand, which is saying very clearly that people like me — and there’s other colleagues I know who think the DSA is not part of the Democratic Party, they don’t agree with a lot of their extremist views,” Gottheimer said. 

The New Jersey lawmaker said that the DSA is aiming to “hijack” the Democratic Party with views that are “not in line with Democratic values.” 

“I don’t like to speak for my colleagues, but I think there would have been a lot more support,” Gottheimer said of a clean resolution denouncing DSA. “Instead [Republicans] put in this poison pill, and they should focus on the issue at hand.” 

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) told JI that the vote was an attempt by Republicans “to try and save the SAVE Act” rather than a legitimate attempt to condemn socialism.

“I voted to condemn socialism last year. I’ll vote to condemn socialism today, tomorrow and any time,” Schneider said, noting that he also believes his colleagues would support a clean resolution condemning socialism without added language. “We support an economy that works for everybody. We’re capitalists.”