SEATTLE (AP) – Jaime Herrera Beutler has spent ten years in Congress as a quiet moderate Republican who largely avoided heated partisan fighting. That changed with Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
The Washington State Congressman was at the center of a debate in the Senate on Saturday over whether the former president rejected lawmakers’ pleas for help when his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Her statement late on Friday Claiming that Trump turned down a petition from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Turned Trump’s senate process upside down and sparked a row over calling Herrera Beutler as a witness. That outcome was avoided by a last-minute deal between Democratic prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers.
Herrera Beutler, 42, hasn’t spent her career seeking that kind of attention.
She was first elected to Washington’s 3rd congressional district in 2010, highlighting her humble roots and connecting with voters by describing how she and her husband were tenants who were still saving money to buy their first home.
As a state legislator, she defeated a much more famous Democratic opponent to win the seat of the American House, which encompasses both rural southwest Washington and the more liberal northern suburbs of Portland, Oregon.
The eldest of her three children, Abigail, was born prematurely in 2013 and had no kidneys. Herrera Beutler has worked to help other families dealing with protracted medical crises and introduced legislation to make childcare more affordable.
Herrera Beutler, a Hispanic in a party struggling to win over Spanish voters, was immediately seen as a rising Republican star in a state without viable GOP candidates.
But she never ran for the United States Senate or Governor and was not in the news as often as U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, another Washington congressman who took a leadership position and became a national figure.
Then the spotlight found Herrera Beutler.
Her statement said Friday night that McCarthy had told her he spoke to Trump while rioters stormed the Capitol. She said McCarthy asked Trump to publicly “call off the riot” and told Trump that the violent crowd consisted of Trump supporters, not far-left antifa members.
In her statement, posted on Twitter, Herrera Beutler said, “That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said, ‘Well, Kevin, I think these people are more upset about the election than you are.'”
She then called on people with knowledge of Trump’s conversation with McCarthy to speak up.
“And for the patriots who stood next to the former president while these talks were going on, or even for the former vice president, if you have anything to add here, now is the time,” she said.
She came to Congress in the tea party-dominated class, but Herrera Beutler was a vintage establishment Republican, albeit one more willing than most to defy Trump and other far-right GOP figures. She voted against Trump’s push to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, but has preferred curbing abortion and guns.
Throughout the past two election cycles, Democrats have targeted Herrera Beutler, hoping they could reclaim her seat in the House by linking her to Trump. But in 2018 and 2020, Beutler won, defeated a well-funded challenger, and ran for Trump in her district.
Herrera Beutler has emphasized her willingness to occasionally work down the aisle and listen to the other side. In 2018, she was one of the few Republicans to vote against the extension of the federal government’s warrantless surveillance program.
She voted against impeaching Trump in 2019. But she was one of 10 GOP members of the US House who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the January 6 riot.
Like other Republicans who broke with Trump, Herrera Beutler was convicted by her local and state party.
Herrera Beutler said people should not be surprised by her recent impeachment statements and her conversation with McCarthy.
“Since I publicly announced my decision to impeach, I have shared these details in countless conversations with voters and colleagues, and multiple times through the media and other public forums,” she said.
This story has been corrected to reflect that Herrera Beutler represents Washington’s third congressional district.