Toomey Censured by Pennsylvania County GOP Over Vote to Proceed With Impeachment

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) leaves the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 30, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The York County Republican Party in Pennsylvania voted to censure Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) for his vote to proceed with the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

“For the past four years, Senator Toomey sat silently as a hyper-partisan Democrat Congress relentlessly attacked President Trump, impeaching him twice on fabricated charges,” stated Republican state Rep. Dawn Keefer, who drew up a resolution to censure—or condemn in an official capacity—the senator.

“Given his recent support of the second unconstitutional impeachment effort against a president who is no longer in office the York County Republican Committee has reached the limits of its frustration,” Keefer wrote.

Toomey announced he would retire at the end of his current term, which expires in 2022.

The committee passed the resolution during a meeting on Feb. 13. Toomey’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Toomey had said that he would vote to convict Trump for allegedly inciting violence on Jan. 6 during the Capitol breach because of “all the evidence” that was presented by Democratic House impeachment managers.

“It’s important as a party to be able to distinguish ... the terrific successes of this administration, the fact that the president did stand up to and against some bad policies and some bad trends,” Toomey said. “Those things can be true, and it can also be true that his behavior after the election became completely unacceptable.”

The Senate acquitted Trump in a 57–43 vote; seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict. The result fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict.

Aside from Toomey, Republican Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Bill Cassidy (La.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), and Susan Collins (Maine) voted to convict Trump.

Over the weekend, Cassidy faced blowback from the Louisiana GOP, which unanimously voted to censure him after his vote to convict.

“The Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Louisiana has unanimously voted to censure Senator Bill Cassidy for his vote cast earlier today to convict former President Donald J. Trump on the impeachment charge,” the state GOP said in a statement on Feb. 13.

“We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the vote today by Sen. Cassidy to convict former President Trump,” the GOP members wrote. “Fortunately, clearer heads prevailed, and President Trump has been acquitted of the impeachment charge filed against him.”

The Louisiana senator, who is up for reelection in 2026, wrote an opinion article on Feb. 15 for The Advocate, saying that he voted because Trump’s speech and claims “were clearly intended to prevent a peaceful transfer of power,” adding that “I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and I take that oath seriously. This was, is, and will remain my commitment to you.”

Trump during a Jan. 6 speech called on demonstrators to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard. He later condemned the violence at the Capitol.

The former commander-in-chief’s lawyers asserted that House managers doctored evidence during the impeachment trial, adding that the impeachment effort was unconstitutional.