Colorado Democratic Representative Brittany Pettersen has been on maternity leave but she nonetheless showed up to cast her "no" vote on the GOP budget resolution yesterday because they refused to let her vote remotely.
Pettersen voted against the resolution alongside all of Colorado’s House Democrats, while the state’s Republican representatives supported it—all while she held her sleeping four-week-old son, Sam, in her arms. The vote was 217-215, with Democrats united against the resolution and all Republicans but one voting in favor of it.
Petterson took the opportunity to call Republicans out in a powerful floor speech:
"I rise today with my newborn Sam, who is four weeks old. Unfortunately I wasn't given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being here to represent my constituents and vote "no" on this disastrous Republican budget proposal."
"Republicans and [President Donald Trump] promised to lower costs on Day 1 and instead their priorities have been ripping healthcare away from kids, seniors, moms, and others who need it most. This is not going to save people money. It includes people like my mom who work hourly wages and are still unable to afford healthcare."
"When you don't have access to healthcare you show up in the ER. This is going to have a huge burden on our hospitals and unfortunately we'll have skyrocketing costs. ... Hospitals will bear this burden. It also slashes SNAP, taking food off the plates of seniors and kids all to fund tax breaks for billionaires like Elon Musk while increasing our national deficit by trillions of dollars."
"How can anyone show their face in their district by voting "yes" for this?"
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Petterson later posted a photo of herself with her son along with the following message stressing her point:
"Unfortunately, Republican Leadership denied my ability to vote remotely after giving birth to my son, Sam, but that’s not stopping us from showing up to vote NO on this disastrous budget proposal."
"They want to rip away health care from 400,000 CO kids, take food off the plates of seniors & veterans, and make life more expensive for hardworking Coloradans – all so they can give tax breaks to corporations and billionaires like Elon Musk."
You can see her post below.
She later followed up by calling out President Donald Trump directly in addition to her colleagues who forced her to come to Washington for the vote:
"I have a message for Donald Trump: nobody fights harder than a mom."
"Republican leadership may have denied my ability to vote by proxy but that didn’t stop us from voting against this disastrous budget that strips away health care and food for seniors, veterans, kids and families across Colorado — all to give tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk. I’ll never back down when it comes to our kids."
You can see her post below.
Many praised her for speaking out and joined her in criticizing the GOP.
In an interview with CPR, Petterson said:
“They had to figure out if they were going to have the votes or not. Now they have to deal with the details of this disastrous proposal that would harm so many people in their districts. And so the fight is not over.”
“Nothing is easy when you're traveling with a newborn, and doing it alone was challenging. Then just being here, because he sleeps one or two hours here and there, so I am exhausted.”
She shared that Sam has been an easygoing baby so far, and her friends in Congress have stepped in to support — meeting her at the gate, helping with luggage and baby gear, and bringing food to her home.
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