At Politico, Ben Jacobs explains how censure has evolved from a mark of shame to a fundraising opportunity:Since 2021, there has been an average of more than one official censure a year — a far leap from the past, when censures used to be a once-in-a-decade kind of ordeal. Those who have been disciplined in recent years range from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who was censured for posting an online anime clip where he murdered Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), to Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who was likewise disciplined earlier this year for repeatedly interrupting Donald Trump’s February address to Congress.
None exactly viewed the official rebukes as moments of shame. In fact, for then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was censured in 2023 on a party-line vote for his comments related to the Trump-Russia investigation, the formal mark of disapproval turned out to offer a key asset in his successful 2024 Senate campaign as it solidified his credentials as a resistance hero among California Democratic primary voters. Brad Elkins, Schiff’s campaign manager at the time, credited the censure for providing a boost of approximately $3 million in funds raised for his Senate bid. (As one observer noted at the time, the censure of Schiff ended up being a punishment for his primary opponent, Katie Porter.)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also profited immensely when she was censured in 2023 for making anti-Israel comments in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7th terrorist attacks. In the fundraising quarter that followed her formal rebuke, she raised nearly $3.7 million — almost $3 million more than she raised in her previous top fundraising period.
But at a moment when public life is increasingly governed by the same “attention economy” dynamics as social media, and traditional congressional norms are treated as anachronisms, it’s hard to see anything changing any time soon.
In 1968, a Rod Serling TV play, "Certain Honorable Men," depicted censure as a big deal. Those were the days.
