Below we use Optimal Classification (OC) in R to plot the House’s 218-208 vote on an amendment offered by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to defund funding for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) political science program. Rep. Flake has an M.A. in political science from Brigham Young University.
The vote was largely party-line with five Democrats voting “Yea” and twenty-seven Republicans voting “Nay.” The Democratic defections do not appear to be ideologically-driven, but the twenty-seven Republicans who broke party ranks are generally less conservative than their counterparts who supported the amendment.
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