U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan votes against bill to remove Confederate statues from Capitol
As congressional leaders considered the removal of statues honoring Confederate leaders and other figures who defended slavery, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan joined 119 other Republicans in voting against the bill.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 285-120 to approve the measure. Democrats were unanimously in favor of the resolution and 67 Republicans, including House Republican Leader U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, joined them in support. After the House’s approval, the bill heads to the U.S. Senate.
The bill would remove any statues of certain historical figures from display at the U.S. Capitol, including the bust of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the opinion in the landmark Dred Scott v. Sandford case ruling that the Constitution did not provide citizenship for people of African descent.
Taney’s bust would be replaced by one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black person to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill also removes other figures who “voluntarily” served in the Confederate States of America’s military.
“Racism, bigotry, and hate have no place in our country, but a society cannot progress without learning from its past,” Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, wrote in a statement provided to the Bradenton Herald on Tuesday afternoon. “Furthermore, there is already a process in place for states to switch out their statues through coordination with their respective state legislatures. In fact, several of the statues in question are already in the process of being replaced voluntarily through the traditional process.”
The seven-term congressman faces a primary challenge in 2022 from Martin Hyde, a Sarasota-based conservative business owner. In recent months, Hyde has criticized Buchanan for not embracing far-right ideals. In a Facebook post on Monday, Hyde advertised his campaign baseball hats that read “Cancel Cancel Culture.”
A similar ordeal regarding Confederate monuments remains unresolved in Manatee County. After the deadly events at Charlottesville, Va. in 2017, the Manatee County Commission voted to remove a monument honoring the Confederacy from outside the Manatee County Courthouse.
As crews worked under the cover of darkness to remove the monument and place it elsewhere, the obelisk-shaped statue fell and broke. At the time, the county estimated it would cost more than $40,000 to repair the monument, which was first given to the county as a gift from the Daughters of the Confederacy group in 1924.
The Board of County Commissioners has still not determined what will be done with the broken monument.
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 4:16 PM.
