UPDATE: The Hegseth impeachment died by seven votes while 18 House members stayed home: 11 Democrats and 7 Republicans. Here are all of them.
By Joseph J. Jackson | WASHINGTON (Updated Nov. 10, 2026)
The short version
Update: 11 House Democrats didn't vote Tuesday night when Republicans buried eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 211-204. The margin was seven votes.
Democratic leaders did not whip the vote. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who says he backs impeaching Hegseth and wants to be speaker in January, told members to vote their conscience, critics said.
Seven Republicans skipped it too: Monica De La Cruz (Texas), Neal Dunn (Fla.), Russell Fry (S.C.), Julia Letlow (La.), Tom Tiffany (Wis.), Derrick Van Orden (Wis.) and Rudy Yakym (Ind.).
Florida had one on each side: Democrat Frederica Wilson of Miami and Republican Neal Dunn of Panama City. Nancy Pelosi was also among the missing.
With all 18 in the room voting with their parties, the motion likely still passes, 218-215. But on the night it happened, Democrats had the bodies to stop it and didn't show up, and seven Republicans stayed home even as their own leaders pushed members to be there.
What changed tonight
The vote that killed Rep. Thomas Massie's impeachment articles wasn't only a Republican story. Seven Republicans and 11 Democrats missed it, CBS News reported. All 203 Democrats who did vote opposed the motion, along with Massie, the only Republican to break ranks.
The 11 Democrats who didn't vote, according to Common Dreams: Julia Brownley (Calif.), Lou Correa (Calif.), Laura Gillen (N.Y.), Steven Horsford (Nev.), Jonathan Jackson (Ill.), Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Brittany Pettersen (Colo.), Melanie Stansbury (N.M.), Haley Stevens (Mich.), Marilyn Strickland (Wash.) and Frederica Wilson (Fla.).
The 7 Republicans who didn't vote, according to CBS News: Monica De La Cruz (Texas), Neal Dunn (Fla.), Russell Fry (S.C.), Julia Letlow (La.), Tom Tiffany (Wis.), Derrick Van Orden (Wis.) and Rudy Yakym (Ind.).
The full tally is in the House Clerk's Roll Call 317.
Correa is recovering from a medical procedure and can't travel, Common Dreams reported. No reason was reported for the other 10 Democrats or for any of the seven Republicans. One absent member's office said she reached the chamber just after the vote gaveled out and entered a "no" in the Congressional Record, CBS reported. A statement in the Record doesn't count toward the tally.
The math
The motion passed by seven votes. Eleven Democrats stayed off the board. Had they voted no, the count would have been 211-215, and the motion to bury the articles would have failed, sending the House to debate and vote on the charges themselves.
That only holds because seven Republicans were also missing. Fill every empty seat along party lines and Republicans still win, 218-215. Nobody can say for certain how the night plays out with full attendance. What's certain is that Democrats had the numbers in the room to win this vote, and leadership didn't make sure they used them.
Leadership didn't whip it
House Democratic leaders did not whip the vote, CBS reported. Writer Laura Bassett said Jeffries told members to "vote their conscience," according to Common Dreams.
Asked about the absences, Jeffries told Politico he hadn't talked with the floor team about what happened, Common Dreams reported. His message after the vote: "This is not the end of it. It's just the beginning," CBS reported.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., didn't wait for the floor team. Everyone knew the vote was coming, she told MeidasTouch, and absent colleagues should have gotten their "raggedy selves up these steps," Mediaite reported.
The two Florida seats
Florida sent one absentee from each party.
Republican Neal Dunn represents Florida's 2nd District, from Panama City across the Big Bend. His own leadership and the White House spent the day pressing Republicans to show up and vote the impeachment down, CNN reported. Dunn didn't vote either way. No reason for his absence had been reported as of this update.
Democrat Frederica Wilson, 83, represents Miami. This isn't her first costly absence: she missed weeks of votes this spring after eye surgery, The Hill reported, and during that stretch a resolution to limit Trump's war powers in Iran failed on a 212-212 tie that her vote could have tipped, The National News Desk reported. No reason for Tuesday's absence had been reported as of this update.
Analysis: Why this is a leadership problem
Jeffries has said Democrats will "run Pete Hegseth out of town." He wants the speaker's gavel in January. Tuesday was a chance to show the caucus can count, and the count came up short.
A minority leader doesn't control Republican attendance. He does control his own whip operation. On a privileged resolution with a clock everyone could see, leadership chose not to whip, then said afterward it hadn't checked with its own floor team. That's not a vote Democrats lost to Republicans. It's a vote Democrats left on the table.
The pattern isn't new. In September, Jeffries and his leadership team voted "present" on Rep. Al Green's resolution to impeach Trump, saying impeachment needs a full investigative process first. Last December he waved off Hegseth impeachment entirely, saying Republicans would never let it reach the floor. Massie got it to the floor. Democrats didn't show up for it.
The seven Republicans don't get a pass either. Their leaders and the White House worked the phones all day to get members into the chamber. These seven stayed out of it. On a vote over a war Congress never authorized and strikes on survivors in the water, skipping isn't neutral. A member who won't put a yes or a no on the record has made a choice: let somebody else carry it. Either way, Hegseth keeps the job and the allegations never get a hearing on the House floor. In FMNN's view, the 18 who stayed home aren't any better than the 210 who voted to bury it.
The defense Jeffries' allies will make is fair to state: a full House likely buries the articles anyway, Democrats take the majority in January and can start over with hearings and subpoenas, and a symbolic win on a lame-duck procedural vote changes little. That's true as far as it goes. But a speaker's job is counting votes and making sure his members are in the room when it matters. Tuesday he didn't do either, on the one vote of the week his base was watching.
What the articles charge (from our original story)
Massie's eight articles accuse Hegseth of waging the Iran war without a declaration or authorization from Congress, ignoring laws that limit civilian casualties (citing the U.S. strike on an Iranian school), directing "extrajudicial killings" in the Caribbean boat strikes including follow-up strikes on survivors, the capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, and retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly. Hegseth called it a "farce." The White House has said the Sept. 2, 2025 follow-up strike was within the law.
Massie said he won't file again, CBS reported. Democrats can, once they hold the House in January. Impeachment takes a simple House majority. Removal takes two-thirds of the Senate.
Sources
CNN live updates, "House GOP blocks effort to hold Hegseth impeachment vote," Nov. 10, 2026
Law Commentary, "House Blocks Pete Hegseth Impeachment as 11 Democrats Miss Vote"
NBC News, "Republican-led House rejects Hegseth impeachment effort," Nov. 10, 2026
Newsweek, Democrats who voted on the Green impeachment resolution, Sept. 2026
The Hill, "Scrutiny ramps up over mystery of missing lawmakers"
CBC News, "Defiant Hegseth calls Republican's impeachment resolution a 'farce'"
Graphic: Florida Man News Network