EXCLUSIVE — Conservative advocacy group Heritage Action is planning to target Senate Republicans who have voiced plans to vote against proceeding with a trial on the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The sister organization of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit think tank, told the Washington Examiner on Monday morning that it will unleash its own campaign to whip GOP senators into line and ensure the Mayorkas trial comes to fruition later this week.
“The border crisis, which was created and facilitated by this administration, is now the number one concern of Americans,” Heritage Action Executive Vice President Ryan Walker said in a statement. “Lawmakers who claim that impeaching Secretary Mayorkas is a waste of time or the Senate is too busy to hold a trial are not only absurd, they’re massively out-of-touch with the voters who sent them to Washington.”
House managers in the case will deliver the two articles of impeachment to the upper chamber on Wednesday, nearly two months since the lower chamber impeached Mayorkas.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told members in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent last Friday that confirmed the Senate would receive the articles Wednesday, when Mayorkas is also scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill for a pair of congressional hearings related to the DHS budget. Impeachment proceedings are slated to begin in the Senate on Thursday.
Heritage Action plans to alert lawmakers later Monday that it will declare any procedural motion that Schumer puts on the floor a “key vote.” The vote to table the trial only requires a simple majority and has a one-vote threshold, making it critical that Republicans stay in line.
Any Republican who defects and votes with the Democrats will be put on blast, including in messaging to its 2 million grassroots supporters, according to Heritage Action.
“Anyone who does Schumer’s bidding and votes to dismiss or table will be complicit in his coverup and the border crisis itself. Senators who would rather focus on the terrible bills Schumer has put forward instead of holding a trial for Mayorkas cannot be trusted by conservatives,” Walker said. “Heritage Action stands with Americans demanding accountability and will Key Vote any procedural move put forth to sweep the charges against Mayorkas under the rug.”
To date, the exact number of Republicans who are opposed to impeachment remains unclear. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said in February that impeaching Mayorkas was “the dumbest exercise and use of time.”
In January, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he had not seen the constitutional standard met to move forward with removing Mayorkas from office.
The House impeached Mayorkas on charges of refusing to enforce the law and a breach of public trust. More than 8 million non-U.S. citizens have been encountered attempting to enter the United States in the three years since President Joe Biden took office — the highest figure in any three-year period.
Republicans in the House are also upping the pressure on colleagues in the Senate.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who introduced impeachment articles against Mayorkas multiple times before House leadership moved on it, said she was proud to have led the impeachment, as it represented the only way to hold the Biden administration accountable for the “deadly border invasion.”
“Schumer must hold the trial in the senate!” Greene wrote Thursday in a post to X.
