A Republican campaign to defend America against a sweeping assault on personal freedoms – or energy-saving lightbulbs as they are more commonly known – went down in defeat on Tuesday night.

The result is a rejection of one of the great causes of the conservative Tea Party movement: the repeal of a 2007 law promoting environmentally efficient lighting.

Presidential contender Michele Bachmann and talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck had dismissed the legislation as an assault on personal freedom.

In a speech in New Orleans last month Bachmann declared: "President Bachmann will allow you to buy any lightbulb you want."

But Tuesday night's vote in the House of Representatives failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed under special rules invoked by Republicans to fasttrack the repeal.

The bill did get a 233-193 majority in the House, however, and Joe Barton the Texan Republican behind the measure told US politics website Politico he would try again to get the legislation through – by any means.

"We can put it on an appropriations bill", he said. "We can back it under a rule. I can try and go to some of the Democrats who didn't vote for it and figure out a way to get them to consider voting for it in a different format."

The Texan said he had originally counted on getting more than 300 votes for the measure including help from some Democrats. But the Republicans' hopes of using the defence of old-fashioned 100 watt bulbs as a rallying cry for freedom had already begun to dim by Tuesday night.

The party cast the 2007 measure, which was signed into law by George Bush, as an outright ban on the familiar 100 watt bulb, and even an affront to its inventor Thomas Edison. In their view encouraging the adoption of curly lightbulbs was yet another example of government overreach by Barack Obama.

Saving the lightbulb was not a traditional Republican cause, however. The original 2007 bill had strong Republican support; it was even crafted in part by Fred Upton, now the chair of the House energy and commerce committee. Upton, anxious to reinforce his conservative credentials, has since recanted: he voted for the repeal of the measure.

The defence of the 100 watt bulb seemed in the Republican mind to be a winner until the run-up to the vote, when lighting manufacturers such as Philips and General Electric joined the White House, Democrats, and environmental organisations in opposing the Republican campaign.

Steven Chu, the energy secretary, told reporters last week the 2007 measure was actually aimed at raising efficiency standards for all new bulbs by more than 25% beginning in 2012.

The companies pointed out, meanwhile, that they were already shifting to newer LED and compact fluorescent bulbs.

It also became more difficult for Republicans to maintain the argument that the new energy-saving bulbs were a burden on consumers.

Although energy-saving lightbulbs do cost more than the old-fashioned variety, environmental organisations argued that the new standards would save the average American household around $85 a year (£50) in electricity costs.

• This article was amended on 15 July 2011. The original headline read: Republican bill to ban energy-saving lightbulbs fades. This has been corrected.