Jaime Herrera Beutler

Herrera moved back to the 18th Legislative District to run for state representative, and was appointed to the Washington House of Representatives in 2007 to replace Richard Curtis, who resigned amid a sex scandal.[8] She won the 2008 election to retain her seat with 60% of the vote.[9]

Herrera was elected as Assistant Floor Leader, the youngest member of her party's leadership in the State House. Her first sponsored bill gave tax relief to business owners serving in the military. Governor Christine Gregoire signed it into law on March 27, 2008.[10]

During her time in the House, Herrera also opposed Senate Bill 5967, which mandated equal treatment of the sexes in community athletic programs run by cities, school districts, and private leagues.[11]

• Health Care and Wellness
• Human Services
• Transportation[12]

Herrera ran for Washington's 3rd congressional district when Democratic incumbent Brian Baird retired. She advanced to the general election with 28% of the vote, well ahead of fellow Republican candidates David Hedrick and David Castillo. State Representative Denny Heck, a Democrat, ranked first with 31% of the vote.[13][14][15]

Herrera raised over $1.5 million in contributions, 62% of which came from individual contributors and 35% from political action committees. The biggest single contributor was construction and mining contractor Kiewit Corporation, which gave her campaign over $16,000.[16]

During the campaign, she received support from state Republican leaders Cathy McMorris Rodgers and former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton.[6] The Columbian called her "a rising star in the Republican Party".[6] In October, Herrera was named one of Time Magazine's 40 under 40: "The Washington Republican survived a Tea Party challenge to win the GOP primary in the Evergreen State's 3rd Congressional District. Now Herrera, a 31-year-old Latina and former congressional staffer, has successfully recast herself as the outsider as she takes on a longtime Democratic pol in November."[17]

In the November general election, Herrera defeated Heck, 53%–47%.[18] She won five of the district's six counties.[19] Heck later represented Washington's 10th congressional district, serving alongside Herrera.[20]

On December 22, 2010, she announced that she had taken her husband's name and would thenceforth call herself Jaime Herrera Beutler.[1]

Herrera Beutler announced her candidacy for reelection in January 2012. She quickly outraised her two opponents, Democrat Jon Haugen and Independent Norma Jean Stevens. She won the open primary with 61% of the vote.[21] By the end of the campaign, she had raised more than $1.5 million to Haugen's $10,000.[22] She defeated Haugen 60%–40%.[23]

Herrera Beutler ran for reelection in 2014. She faced Republican challenger Michael Delavar and Democratic challenger Bob Dingethal.[24][25] Dingethal and Herrera Beutler advanced to the general election, where Herrera Beutler defeated Dingethal, 60% to 40%.[26]

In the nonpartisan blanket primary, Herrera Beutler finished first with 55.4% of the vote; Democrat Jim Moeller finished second with 24.4%. In the general election, Herrera Beutler won with 62% of the vote to Moeller's 38%.

In the nonpartisan blanket primary, Herrera Beutler finished first with 40.9% of the vote; Democrat Carolyn Long, a political science professor at Washington State University's Vancouver campus, finished second with 36.6%. Combined, the Democrats in the primary received just over 50% of the vote.[27] In the general election, Herrera Beutler defeated Long with 53% percent of the vote, the closest race since her first campaign. She is now one of only two Republicans, the other being Don Young of Alaska, representing a seat west of the Cascades. She was also the only Republican representing a district on the Pacific Coast.

Herrera Beutler received over 56% of the vote in the blanket primary and Long just under 40%, setting up a rematch between the two.[28] In the general election, Herrera Beutler won by a larger margin than in 2018, defeating Long by about 13 points.[29] Since Michelle Steel's election, she no longer is the only Republican representing a congressional district on the Pacific Coast.

Hererra Beutler, speaking on the House floor in November 2012

In March 2011, Herrera Beutler introduced her first bill to Congress. The Savings Start With Us Act would reduce the salaries of members of Congress, the president, and the vice president by 10%.[7]

After the birth of her daughter Abigail (who was diagnosed with Potter's syndrome) in July 2013, Herrera Beutler announced that she would still be active in the House for key votes, but would dedicate a good deal of time to Abigail's care.[30][31][32]

In June 2014, Herrera Beutler proposed the Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act, which would help coordinate care for children met with medical complexities in Medicaid.[33] The bill was passed by a committee, but did not get a vote on the House floor.[34]

Herrera Beutler is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership[35][36] and the Congressional Western Caucus.[37]

In the first impeachment of Donald Trump, on December 18, 2019, Herrera Beutler voted against both articles of impeachment, along with all other voting Republicans.[38] On January 12, 2021, she announced her support for Trump's second impeachment, after the storming of the U.S. Capitol six days earlier, citing "indisputable evidence" of Trump's impeachable conduct. She blamed him for inciting the storming and upbraided him for continuing to push lawmakers to object to certifying the results of the presidential election rather than "doing anything meaningful to stop the attack". She called Trump's initial statement denouncing the violence "pathetic". Responding to claims that impeaching Trump would only "inflame Republican voters", Herrera Beutler said that as a Republican herself, she believed that she and other Republicans "will be best served when those among us choose truth".[39] The next day, she and nine other Republican representatives voted to impeach Trump.[40]

In response to backlash from Republicans in her district over her vote, Herrera Beutler made several Twitter posts on January 15 expanding on her reasoning, citing "indisputable and publicly available facts" that proved Trump had engaged in impeachable conduct.[41]

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies[42]
  • Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch (Ranking Member)[43]
• Joint Economic Committee[42]

• Congressional Hispanic Conference
• Republican Main Street Partnership
• Tuesday Group[44]

In 2019, the Alliance for Biosecurity, a consortium of companies that develop products to respond to national security threats, gave Herrera Beutler its 2019 Congressional Biosecurity Champion Award. The award is given once a year to a member of Congress who works to improve the country's ability to prevent and combat major bio-security threats to national security.[48]

In April 2011, Herrera Beutler voted for Paul Ryan's budget, which would have lowered taxes for the highest earners from 35% to 25% and made Medicare a voucher system.[49]

In December 2019, Herrera Beutler voted against impeaching President Trump, saying that there was inadequate proof that he engaged in obstruction of justice and abuse of power.[50][51] In 2021, she voted in favor of Trump's second impeachment in the wake of the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, which she blamed him for inciting.[52]

Herrera Beutler favors repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).[53] In March 2017, she said she would vote against the American Health Care Act, a Republican replacement for Obamacare, because of its adverse effects on children who depend on Medicaid.[54]

After Trump implemented an executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, The Seattle Times reported in January 2017 that Herrera Beutler "was vaguely critical of the order, without saying she opposed it or calling for any specific changes".[55]

Herrera Beutler opposes same-sex marriage.[53][56]

In November 2013, Herrera Beutler co-sponsored the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would address a rise in military sexual assaults. Under the act, the military chain of command would lose the power to evaluate and respond to such incidents. "Despite efforts by military leadership to address this serious issue, the problem remains", she said in a news release. "A Defense Department report found that fewer than one in six cases were being reported to authorities, often due to fear of retaliation by superiors. A quarter of the time, the perpetrators of these crimes were in the victims' direct chain of command."[57]

In December 2017, Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2018, which included part of Herrera Beutler's and Suzan DelBene’s (WA-01) Child Abuse Accountability Enhancement Act (H.R. 1103). The act closed a legal loophole that denied justice to some survivors of child abuse.[58]