Axne filed a letter with the House Clerk on Aug. 12, 2022, stating, “I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency and hereby grant the authority to cast my vote by proxy to the Honorable Jennifer Wexton, who has agreed to serve as my proxy.” Her request was approved, and Wexton cast Axne’s ballot in her place, voting in favor of the inflation-intensifying bill.
When an Instagram post from Axne’s son showed the representative and her family in Paris a day before the vote, however, her campaign was asked for the real reason she was voting by proxy, and the post was predictably removed. When questioned later by a reporter on the scandal, Axne admitted that she actually used the proxy to vacation in France with her family — meaning her absence had nothing to do with any “health emergency” and she therefore lied to the House Clerk.