In ethics complaint, Republicans accuse 2 Dems of ‘insurrection’ for protesting on the House floor

On the same day that the Arizona House of Representatives voted to repeal an abortion ban from the 19th Century, a trio of anti-abortion Republicans launched an ethics complaint against top Democratic lawmakers who angrily protested an earlier move to block that vote, accusing them of intimidating GOP lawmakers and inciting a riot. 

On April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court revived a near-total ban on abortions from 1864, ruling that it trumps a 15-week gestational ban passed in 2022. 

The decision left GOP lawmakers scrambling, with some fearful of the political repercussions in November but most unwilling to move against the party’s pro-life stance. On Wednesday, Democrats were finally able to peel away three Republican lawmakers to narrowly repeal the law by a vote of 32 to 28, but that success followed several high profile failures, including one that culminated in a vehement reaction on the House floor just a day after the state Supreme Court’s ruling. 

When the GOP majority voted to pause the floor session instead of allowing a bill to repeal the 1864 near-total ban to be heard on April 10, Democrats erupted into loud shouts of protest,  yelling “Shame!,” “Hold the vote!” and “Blood on your hands!” and pointing accusingly at Republican lawmakers across the chamber.  

That display has been repeatedly denounced by Arizona Republicans, who have compared it to “insurrectionist behavior” and cited it as part of their reasoning for delaying a vote on the repeal for two weeks. And on April 24, the same day the House repealed the 1864 law, Republican Reps. Jacqueline Parker, Barbara Parker and David Marshall reiterated that criticism in an ethics complaint filed against Democratic Reps. Oscar De Los Santos and Analise Ortiz. The two led their party in excoriating Republicans that day. 

In their letters to House Ethics Committee Chairman Joseph Chaplik, the trio call for an investigation into De Los Santos and Ortiz, accusing them both of “disorderly, inappropriate, and disruptive behavior unbecoming of an elected official and embarrassing to the House of Representatives on a national stage.” While Ortiz is only accused of violating the legislature’s definition of disorderly conduct, De Los Santos, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, is accused of three separate violations, including meeting the legislature’s threshold for disorderly conduct and breaking procedural rules and decorum standards governing debate in the chamber.   

While disorderly conduct isn’t a crime under Arizona law, the complaint lodged against De Los Santos and Ortiz defines it based on a legal definition from 1910 which describes it as an act that “scandalizes” people, is “offensive to the public sense of morality,” conflicts with the rules around “good order and decorum” or is “contrary” to law. De Los Santos, write the trio, violated all three of those qualifications when he “incited a riot on the House Floor” and shouted and insulted lawmakers. Because De Los Santos began protesting before the chamber could vote on a motion to recess rather than allow the repeal bill to be considered, the complaint alleges that he sought to interfere with the legislative process. 

“Given his actions were intended to threaten members and force the House to act in accordance with his will, they could even be characterized as an attempted insurrection,” reads the complaint against De Los Santos. 

The complaint against Ortiz includes similar allegations and accuses her of disrespecting Republican lawmakers and exhibiting behavior “unbecoming of an elected representative.” 

Also included as evidence of disorderly conduct in the complaint is the duo’s disruption of an impromptu press conference held by Republican Rep. Matt Gress shortly after the House failed to support his bid to repeal the 1864 near-total ban. Gress, who is seeking reelection in a swing district, pushed for the House to consider the repeal bill on April 10 but later voted with the rest of the majority party to table the matter instead. 

While Gress spoke to reporters about his commitment to continue advocating for the repeal on the House floor shortly after the rest of the Republican Party had dispersed in the face of criticism from Democrats, Ortiz and De Los Santos, along with other Democrats, approached and accused him of lying and not caring if women died. Gress, Ortiz told reporters, has previously supported bills that have the potential to codify fetal personhood and his vote to recess the floor session instead of forcing a vote on the repeal bill showcased his insincerity. 

A picture of Democrats shouting at Gress is included in the complaint, and a reference is made to a recording Ortiz made of the encounter, in which she stated an intent to disrupt Gress’ remarks to reporters.

“As the riot continued, Representative Ortiz participated in the disruption of a press conference by shouting at members from across the floor and charging the personal desks of Republican members,” reads the complaint. “Her own recording of the encounter captures her statement, ‘I think we need to disrupt his conference over here,’ and depicts her charging across the House Floor to Representative Gress and engaging in name-calling in front of the press.” 

Gress did not respond to requests for comment on the complaint, or about whether he would be willing to testify to support it in an ethics hearing. 

The complaint added that the angry yelling from Democrats, movement towards Republican lawmakers and De Los Santos’ “hovering” near Republican desks and “invading the personal space” of some lawmakers amounted to intimidation. 

“Several members felt that their personal safety could be at risk and the sergeant at arms was approached to ask him what he could do. This outburst completely shattered the decorum and civility of the chamber and disgraced every one of its members,” reads the complaint.

De Los Santos and Ortiz have until May 1 to file written responses. While it’s under the purview of the House Ethics committee whether to take up the investigation, the options for punishing the duo are limited as final actions against them must be voted on by the entire House. 

The committee can recommend that the two be censured, which Republicans, who hold a one-vote majority, can follow up on. But expelling Ortiz or De Los Santos requires a two-thirds supermajority vote, and Democratic support for such a motion will not happen, especially given that De Los Santos has already been the recipient of Republican retaliation after the repeal of the 1864 law. On Wednesday, shortly after the law was successfully struck down by the House, GOP leadership stripped the Laveen Democrat of his committee assignments. 

In an emailed statement, Minority Leader Lupe Contreras denounced the complaints as just another attempt to punish Democrats for spearheading the vote to repeal the 1864 ban and voicing their disapproval of the GOP push to block it.  

“These complaints are nothing more than retaliation against our members who reacted to a clear abuse of the process by a Republican Speaker pro tem who refused to recognize one of our members and instead went forward with a substitute motion to recess the chamber to avoid a vote on the 1864 total abortion ban repeal,” Contreras said. “In spite of the over-top rhetoric in the complaints, that’s all this was. The fact that the Speaker has already punished Assistant Leader De Los Santos by stripping him of his committees before an ethics hearing has even taken place only underscores and accentuates the abuse of process.” 

Progressive organizations defended the free speech rights of the two Democrats and highlighted the accusations of insurrection as ironic. 

“Utilizing your First Amendment right to speak out against a Civil War era abortion ban is democracy in action,” Alejandra Gomez, executive director of LUCHA, said in a written statement. “This baseless complaint from Arizona Republicans is full of irony, as they themselves have ties to the January 6th insurrection. This is nothing but a desperate attempt to silence dissent and a waste of time and resources.” 

For Ortiz and De Los Santos, the complaints led to a fundraising opportunity. In posts on social media site X, the two criticized the complaints as groundless and asked for help covering their legal costs and bolstering their reelection campaigns. 

“@RepAnaliseOrtiz & I held the line against the extreme 1864 total ban on abortion. Now, MAGA Republicans are retaliating by filing meritless ethics complaints against us. Please donate to cover our legal fees & ensure we are both re-elected,” wrote De Los Santos. 

“When we said ‘shame on you’, we spoke for millions. We won’t be silenced. Help us fight this,” added Ortiz.