The 117th Congress ends this week. How well did NC’s delegation represent the state?

Over the past two years, 10 Republicans and five Democrats took up the needs of North Carolinians in the House and Senate chambers.

They sponsored bills, made floor speeches and sometimes voted against their own party to get things done that they believed would help their constituents.

C-SPAN, a public service created by the cable television industry to provide public-affairs programming, has been tracking the habits of each member of the 117th Congress looking at how they voted, when they sponsored bills and how often they spoke up for their constituents.

McClatchy reviewed C-SPAN’s data to look at the North Carolina delegation and how they represented the people of their state.

Here are the findings:

Missed votes

Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Wake County, had the best voting record at 99.9%.

Ross missed only one vote in her first term, on April 15, 2021, on whether to suspend the rules and pass the Nicholas and Zachary Burt Memorial Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Prevention Act of 2021.

Ross said in a statement she’s proud of her voting record. “I focused on results for Wake County and showing up every day for my constituents who are counting on me to be their voice in Washington,” she said. “I’ll bring this same energy to Congress in 2023.”

Reps. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from Greensboro; Alma Adams, a Democrat from Charlotte; and David Rouzer, a Republican from Wilmington, trailed behind Ross with four, five and seven missed votes, respectively.

You might suspect Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a 27-year-old Republican representing the state’s far western counties, would have one of the poorest voting records. The embattled congressman often failed to show up for work and voted by proxy, a provision allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Cawthorn, while his record isn’t flawless — he’s missed 45 votes and has a voting record of 95.5% — is nowhere close to having the worst voting record among North Carolina’s House members.

That record belongs to Rep. Ted Budd, who spent much of 2022 campaigning for the Senate and on Tuesday will begin serving North Carolina there. Budd, a Republican from Davie County, closed out the congressional term having missed 122 votes, giving him an 87.8% voting record. Prior to Budd’s Senate campaign, he had missed only 33 votes.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, had the second-highest number of missed votes at 58 of House members from North Carolina. Her voting record is 94.2%. Her spokesman, Alex Ives, told The N&O that her number skews higher because Foxx refused to vote by proxy, a privilege afford to House members during the pandemic.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Denver, missed 45 votes with a voting record of 95.5%.

Reps. Richard Hudson, a Republican who now lives in Moore County; Greg Murphy, a Republican from Greenville; G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from Wilson; and David Price, a Democrat from Chapel Hill, missed between 18 and 39 votes.

Across the Capitol building, Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican from Winston-Salem, failed to vote 132 times, giving him an 86.1% voting record, which falls below Budd’s in the House. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, missed 62 votes, giving him a 93.5% voting record.

Senators’ missed votes are likely higher because while both chambers allowed for proxy voting due to the pandemic, members of the Senate were required to be in the Capitol complex at the time they cast a proxy vote, while members of the House weren’t even required to be in Washington.

Voting against party

When it came to casting votes, it was rare to find a Democrat from North Carolina who would vote differently than the majority of lawmakers in their own party. It happened once and it was Manning.

Manning voted against an amendment, that ultimately failed, to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023.

Republicans, who did not hold a majority in either chamber, were more likely to vote against their party.

All of them, except Rouzer, did so at least once.

Foxx voted against the majority of her party twice, while Murphy did so three times and Budd four.

Tillis went against his party five times.

Cawthorn and Bishop hold the record this term for going against their party the most. Both are members of the Freedom Caucus, the most conservative group of Republicans in the House — though Budd also belonged to that group.

Cawthorn went against his party nine times, while Bishop went against Republicans 22 times.

Talking points

While Foxx might have missed some opportunities to vote, she never missed the opportunity to speak. Foxx is ranked No. 10 among members of the House for giving the most one-minute floor speeches at 46. C-SPAN also clocked her talking for a combined eight hours during the term.

One-minute floor speeches are around 300 words of the speaker’s choice given before the business of the day. They often honor a constituent or something from the speaker’s community, or address a specific topic.

Cawthorn helped make these speeches more well-known by often making controversial statements that would go viral online, including in his final speech telling men to reclaim their masculinity. He made 22 during his time in office.

But no one can match Foxx’s gift of gab.

Bishop is recorded as talking for three hours, and made 15 one-minute floor speeches. McHenry, Tillis and Ross were recorded speaking for two hours each. Cawthorn, Murphy, Manning, Rouzer and Adams all spoke for about one hour.

The rest of the delegation spoke for around 30 minutes, with Price being the least chatty at just 27 minutes.

Sponsoring bills

But their work in Congress isn’t only about grandstanding and casting votes. North Carolina’s delegation also proposed bills meant to help their constituents.

Tillis took the lead for both sponsoring bills — 65 of them — and having them pass, with four.

Tillis raised eyebrows and ire from some Republicans this term after working across the aisle to help pass a major gun bill, protect same-sex and interracial marriages and propose an immigration bill that never made it to the Senate floor.

But his bills also helped redefine the eastern and middle districts of North Carolina’s federal courts and helped students get copyright fees waived if their art won congressional competitions.

Hudson, Bishop, Burr and Ross each had two bills become law as separate pieces of legislation. Hudson sponsored 21, Bishop 19, and Burr and Ross sponsored 17 each.

Murphy, McHenry, Foxx, Butterfield, Price and Manning all had one bill pass. Murphy sponsored 32, McHenry 27, Foxx 18, Butterfield 17, Price 13, and Manning sponsored 12.

Adams and Cawthorn sponsored 48 bills, Budd sponsored 46 bills and Rouzer sponsored 15, but none of those bills passed.

Foxx also sponsored a bill that named a Department of Veteran Affairs outpatient clinic in Forest City after Master Sgt. Jerry K. Crump. The bill passed but wasn’t included in C-SPAN’s data, likely because it wasn’t a roll-call vote. All of North Carolina’s House delegates co-sponsored the bill.

Often even if bills don’t pass separately, they are folded into larger ones like the National Defense Authorization Act or government funding bills.

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