Twenty-Two Senate Republicans Vote 'No' on Violence Against Women Act

Before President Obama delivered his State of the Union Address Tuesday, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act, sending it to the House. The reauthorization of this act, which aids in the fight against domestic violence and sexual violence, should've been a no-brainer. Unfortunately, "no-brainer" was the word of the day for the 22 Republican men who voted against it, a count which included both Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who gave the Republican rebuttal to last night's speech, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who gave the Tea Party rebuttal-to-the-rebuttal.

Here are the Republicans who voted against reauthorizing the act:

Senators who voted against the bill included Republicans John Barrasso (Wyo.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), John Boozman (Ark.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Cornyn (Texas), Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Orrin Hatch (Utah), James Inhofe (Okla.), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), Mike Lee (Utah), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Jim Risch (Idaho), Pat Roberts (Kansas), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), John Thune (S.D.) and Tim Scott (S.C.).

So what was the problem? One problem for Republicans may have been the fact that the new act extends protections to LGBT victims of domestic violence. As all Republicans should know, gay people who are in gay relationships probably deserve any negative consequence that might come along with a particular relationship.

For his part, Marco Rubio released a statement saying he voted against reauthorization because of new provisions against sexual assault and because he questioned the extension of new protections for Native American women.