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Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have each missed more than a fifth of Senate votes so far this year as they campaigned for the presidency, according to Associated Press analysis of congressional data.
With 16 votes missed out of the 77 that the Republican-controlled Senate held in 2019, Harris and Booker far exceed the number missed by fellow senators who are also competing for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Senator Bernie Sanders has missed seven votes so far this year, while Sense. Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar missed three and Senator Elizabeth Warren missed a vote, the AP revealed.
Seeking the presidency as a congressman in parliament requires a juggling act that often results in the candidates being missed as the campaign season is in full swing. The most notable recent example may have been Florida senator Marco Rubio, who was the victim of the failed votes of his rivals – including future president Donald Trump – at the 2016 GOP presidential primary.
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"When you are a governor or a businessman, you can run for president and continue to do your daily work. But when you're a senator or a congressman and you run for president, you're not voting, which is the most important part of your job, "said Alex Conant, veteran Republican strategist and director of communications for the United States. Rubio in 2016. " think that there is an inherent conflict that people (who) not lying in this position will try to exploit. "
This does not mean, however, that it is effective to criticize the presidential candidates for the missed votes. Although Rubio's absenteeism drew criticism from Trump and the Democrats seeking to sit in the Senate in 2016, he still managed to get re-elected to the Senate.
And Rubio had missed considerably more votes at a similar point in 2015 than Harris and Booker during the 2019 Senate session: the Republican was absent from 25 of the first 77 votes this year, according to the AP count. This represents 56% more votes compared to Harris and Booker.
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Texas senator Ted Cruz was also a victim of failed votes last year by former congressional candidate Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate, and still took the fronts.
Jesse Lehrich, Democratic strategist, a former Hillary Clinton aide for the 2016 campaign who is currently not affiliated with any presidential candidate, predicted that his party's presidential candidates would avoid making missed votes on a topic in the presidential election. a primary that has remained largely immune to infighting.
"Given the positive content of the Democratic side of the campaign so far, I simply can not imagine a candidate trying to turn it into a weapon of bad faith in this primary," said Lehrich. "If anyone did it, I think it would turn against him."
Harris and Booker have accounted for most of the missed votes this month, including the confirmation of Trump's candidacy for Interior Department leadership, David Bernhardt, while the Democratic duo had scheduled a separate campaign trip separately. in Iowa. Harris has written a statement in the congressional record stating clearly that she would have voted no to pass Bernhardt to the final vote.
But none of the Democratic senators who sat in 2020 missed votes where their presence would have affected the outcome, as Lehrich noted.
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"I would be shocked if a 2020 Democratic candidate missed a key vote where the result was outstanding," he said.
On this point, Conant proposed a bipartisan consensus: "I have never met a voter from Iowa or New Hampshire who feared that Rubio was missing a voice," recalled the Republican, from now on partner of Firehouse Strategies. "Voters understand that when you run for president, the missing votes come with the job. I think the only exception is if you miss a vote of national importance where your vote could be decisive. "
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