Michigan Republican Justin Amash arrived in the United States House of Representatives on January 3, 2011. For the next 2,257 days, he never missed a vote. Then today happened.
Amash was talking to reporters Friday afternoon about everything that’s wrong with Paul Ryan’s health-care bill, when he lost track of what was happening on the House floor. Politico has what happened next:
Amash immediately sprinted into the chamber and tried to put his card in the voting slot to cast his yea or nay, but the vote had closed.
Amash approached floor staff and leadership to see if they could either re-open the vote or call it again. Staff said there was no precedent for doing so. Amash hung his head low and was overcome with emotion, those on the floor told POLITICO.
After drying his eyes, Amash composed himself enough to tweet an apology to his constituents.
The 36-year-old chairman of the House Liberty Caucus prides himself on his voting streak, or at least he did. He’ll now need to revise a line in his official bio.
Arkansas Republican Representative Steve Womack is now the iron man of the House, and he did not let that go unnoticed. He’s already put out a press release celebrating himself.
