SEATTLE (AP) – Jaime Herrera Beutler has spent a decade in Congress as a moderate Republican who avoided fierce partisan fighting. That changed with Donald Trump’s second indictment.
The Washington congressman was central to a debate in the Senate over whether the former president rejected lawmakers’ pleas for help when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Her statement late Friday alleging that Trump rejected a request from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, heightened Trump’s Senate trial and sparked a fight to name Herrera Beutler as a witness. The result was avoided by a bargain between the Democratic prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys at the last minute.
Herrera Beutler, 42, has not spent her career seeking that kind of attention.
She was first elected in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District in 2010, emphasizing her humble roots and connecting with voters by describing how she and her husband were tenants still saving money to buy their first home.
As a state legislator, she defeated a much more well-known Democratic opponent to win the U.S. seat, which includes the rural southwest of Washington, as well as the more liberal northern suburbs of Portland, Oregon.
The eldest of her three children, Abigail, was born in early 2013 and without kidneys. Herrera Beutler has worked to help other families facing long-term medical crises and has enacted legislation to make childcare affordable.
Herrera Beutler, a Spaniard in a party that has struggled 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 U.S. Senate or governor and was not in the news as much as U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, another Washington congressman who took a leadership position and became a national figure.
Then the spotlight finds Herrera Beutler.
In her statement Friday night, McCarthy told her he was talking to Trump while rioters stormed the Capitol. She said McCarthy had asked Trump to publicize the riot and he told Trump that the violent mob consisted of Trump supporters, not left-wing antifa members.
Herrera Beutler said in her statement, which was posted on Twitter: “According to McCarthy, the president said, ‘Well, Kevin, I think these people are more upset about the election than you are.’ ‘
She then appealed to people with knowledge of Trump’s conversation with McCarthy to express themselves.
“And to the patriots who stood next to the former president while these talks were taking place, or even with the former vice president: if you had anything to add here, it would be time,” she said.
She came to Congress in the tea party-dominated class, but Herrera Beutler was a Republican vintage, though one more willing than most to challenge Trump and other far-right GOP figures. She voted against Trump’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the Obama era, but preferred to fight abortions and guns.
During the past two election cycles, Democrats have targeted Herrera Beutler in hopes of taking back her seat by committing her to Trump. But in 2018 and 2020, Beutler won, beat a well-funded challenger and ran ahead of Trump in her district.
Herrera Beutler stressed that she is willing to work across the hallway from time to time and listen to the other side. In 2018, she was one of the few Republicans to vote against the renewal of the federal government’s unsolicited oversight program.
She voted against the accusation of Trump in 2019. But she was one of the 10 GOP members of the U.S. House who voted to accuse the former president of his role in the January 6 riot.
Like other Republicans who broke with Trump, Herrera Beutler was condemned by her local and state party.
Herrera Beutler said people should not be surprised by her recent statements about accusation and her conversation with McCarthy.
“Since publicly announcing my decision to vote for indictment, I have shared these details in numerous conversations with voters and colleagues, and repeatedly through the media and other public forums,” she said.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Herrera Beutler represents the 3rd Congressional District of Washington.