Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced Monday that she is leaving the House Freedom Caucus amid her battle with GOP leadership and hard-line Republicans over her push to allow proxy voting for new parents.

In a letter to Freedom Caucus members, Luna said the “respect” among lawmakers in the group had been “shattered last week” as some conservatives tried to thwart her effort to hold a vote on parental proxy voting.

Luna accused Freedom Caucus members of threatening to “halt floor proceedings indefinitely” if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not change House rules to block her push.

“With a heavy heart, I am resigning from the Freedom Caucus,” Luna wrote in the letter obtained by The Hill. “I cannot remain part of a caucus where a select few operate outside its guidelines, misuse its name, broker backroom deals that undermine its core values and where the lines of compromise and transaction are blurred, disparage me to the press, and encourage misrepresentation of me to the American people.”

The House Freedom Caucus declined to comment.

The announcement, to be sure, did not come as a surprise, since Luna signaled last week that she would likely depart the hard-line conservative group amid her dispute with many of its members. Monday’s letter, however, makes that........

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