The House Censured Chuck Edwards 413-2. He Stood in the Well While the Speaker Read It Aloud.

The House voted 413-2 on Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., after a months-long investigation found he "engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers." The only no votes came from Edwards himself and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

Censure carries no legal penalty and does not remove a member from office, but the ritual is deliberately public. After the vote, Edwards, 65 and in his second term, was required to stand in the well of the House chamber while Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., read the resolution aloud to his colleagues. It is one of fewer than 30 censures in the chamber's history.

The bipartisan House Ethics Committee, led by Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., and ranking member Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., laid out its findings in a 25-page report last month. It concluded that Edwards, who is married, gave two young women on his staff high-value gifts including jewelry, designer purses, handguns and tickets to "Hamilton"; commented frequently on their appearance; invited them to intimate dinners and vacations; and sent notes describing his effusive affection. He went to the home of one aide, identified in the report as Staffer 2, to help decorate her Christmas tree, telling her he had skipped votes that day to do it. He wrote her poems, read one aloud at her going-away party in the office and cried. Text messages showed he sent roughly 30 kinds of ice cream to her home to cheer her up. "Thank you, but this seems a bit excessive," she replied.

The committee found no evidence that Edwards engaged in sexual activity with or explicitly propositioned any employee, and acknowledged the allegations did not amount to quid pro quo harassment under federal law. It censured his conduct anyway, concluding he violated the House Code of Official Conduct by failing to honor the spirit of the rules barring harassment and unwanted advances. Edwards, it wrote, "was at minimum blind to that reality, and at worst, dismissive of the impact his inappropriate conduct had on the careers and wellbeing of two women on his staff."

Edwards fought the finding to the end. He circulated a 22-page letter to colleagues last week rejecting the characterization outright. "An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition. A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct. Poetry is not sexual misconduct," he wrote, arguing that individually permissible acts had been "gathered together, assigned the most damaging possible interpretation" to support a conclusion the evidence did not carry. He said he had known both women since his time in the North Carolina state Senate and had given personal gifts to male staffers too.

Speaking on the floor before the vote, Edwards apologized to his wife and family, and then to the two aides. "I'm sorry that my actions, my judgment or the way that I expressed a friendship ever put either of you in an uncomfortable position," he said. He had already ended his re-election campaign after the committee recommended censure; a panel of North Carolina Republican leaders picked state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom to take his place on the November ballot. Edwards will finish his term.