18 Republicans who voted against Sweden, Finland join NATO
- 18 Republican lawmakers opposed Finland and Sweden joining NATO in a Monday vote.
- Voting went smoothly, but “no” voters included several far-right GOP members.
- Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorne were among them.
Eighteen Republican lawmakers voted against allowing the United States and Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Opponents of Monday’s vote included some of the party’s members on the far right, including representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Matt Gaetz (FL) and Lauren Boebert (CO).
Notan went easy with 394 votes, leaving the 18 Republicans in a small minority even among their own party.
Here is the full list:
- Andy Biggs (AZ)
- Dan Bishop (NC)
- Lauren Boebert (CO)
- Madison Cawthorn (NC)
- Ben Cline (VA)
- Michael Cloud (TX)
- Warren Davidson (OH)
- Matt Gaetz (FL)
- Bob Good (OH)
- Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA)
- H. Morgan Griffith (VA)
- Thomas Massie (KY)
- Tom McClintock (CA)
- Mary E. Miller (IL)
- Ralph Norman (SC)
- Matthew M. Rosendale Sr. (MT)
- Chip Roy (TX)
- Jefferson Van Drew (NJ)
The vote was part of the multinational process through which each of the 30 NATO member states must approve additional members.
Nineteen US lawmakers did not vote – 17 Republicans and two Democrats.
Finland and Sweden applied in mid-May, turning away from decades of neutrality in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both countries have a troubled proximity to Russia via the Baltic Sea.
Finland has a land border with Russia and averted a brutal invasion known as the Winter War in the 1940s.
NATO formally invited the countries to join at the end of June and said it would speed up the process. Once a country joins NATO, all other members of the alliance are obliged to go to war if it is invaded.
The move has proved outrageous for President Vladimir Putinwho said that opposition to NATO expansion was a reason to invade Ukraine in the first place.
(Ukraine also applied for NATO membership, but did not have access to the faster process given to Sweden and Finland.)
The 18 no votes are another sign of the ongoing, Trump-led pro-Russian shift in the party’s right wing.
Gaetz, Greene and Boebert are among the GOP members who repeatedly voted against US military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
They are also among the 63 Republicans who in April voted against a resolution expressing support for NATO and its “founding democratic principles”.
Greene, Gaetz and Kentucky’s Thomas Massie were the only three representatives to oppose measures in April to restrict trade with Russia.