Record number of GOP women in Congress 'didn't come to Washington to compromise'

"Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is so conservative that she continues to oppose legalized same-sex marriage a good six years after the U.S. Supreme Court settled the matter and nearly a decade after her own sister married her wife."

"Even Justice Amy Coney Barrett, now the sole female Supreme Court appointee by a GOP president, was selected, in part, for her unwavering arch-conservative take on Constitutional law -- a far cry from the first woman appointed by a Republican president, Sandra Day O'Connor, who became the epitome of centrism in rulings regarding abortion, affirmative action and LGBTQ rights."

"Even Justice Amy Coney Barrett, now the sole female Supreme Court appointee by a GOP president, was selected, in part, for her unwavering arch-conservative take on Constitutional law -- a far cry from the first woman appointed by a Republican president, Sandra Day O'Connor, who became the epitome of centrism in rulings regarding abortion, affirmative action and LGBTQ rights."

"Most of the GOP female representatives of the 109th were, predictably, anti-abortion, opposed to LGBTQ rights and affirmative action and took little interest in protecting the environment."

"On immigration, 25 of them supported the hard-line anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration, including reductions on asylum and the building of a border wall."

"On immigration, 25 of them supported the hard-line anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration, including reductions on asylum and the building of a border wall."

"Nor, for that matter, do most of the eight Republican women in the Senate (Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski are notable exceptions)."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Nor, for that matter, do most of the eight Republican women in the Senate (Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski are notable exceptions)."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Wyoming's Liz Cheney, the No. 3-ranked Republican House leader and the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress, who offered a withering condemnation of the ex-president's culpability in inciting the Capitol riot, and Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Wyoming's Liz Cheney, the No. 3-ranked Republican House leader and the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress, who offered a withering condemnation of the ex-president's culpability in inciting the Capitol riot, and Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Mace ignited a feud with Ocasio-Cortez when she accused AOC of embellishing the danger she faced during the Capitol riot for political gain."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Democrats took back control of the House on the strength of an especially motivated crop of female candidates offended by the first two years of the Trump White House and shocked that Hillary Clinton had failed in 2016 to become the first woman elected president."

This is a negative sentiment.

"It is solely that she accepted the presidential election results and blamed Trump for inciting the January 6 riots that turned her, temporarily, into the conservative respected by Democrats.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"To say 'Republican,' you're talking about Trump."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Only two Republican women in the House supported the second Trump impeachment:"

This is a negative sentiment.

"In early February, just one day after the House banished Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees for incendiary behavior and two days after GOP lawmakers decided by secret ballot to allow Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney to retain her leadership position despite her vote to impeach Donald Trump, a third drama involving Republican women was unfolding in upstate New York."

This is a negative sentiment.

"In early February, just one day after the House banished Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees for incendiary behavior and two days after GOP lawmakers decided by secret ballot to allow Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney to retain her leadership position despite her vote to impeach Donald Trump, a third drama involving Republican women was unfolding in upstate New York."

This is a negative sentiment.

"In early February, just one day after the House banished Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees for incendiary behavior and two days after GOP lawmakers decided by secret ballot to allow Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney to retain her leadership position despite her vote to impeach Donald Trump, a third drama involving Republican women was unfolding in upstate New York."

This is a negative sentiment.

"By 2020, then, the women who could be successful in GOP primaries, particularly in red districts, were likely to be conservative Trump acolytes, Deckman says."

This is a negative sentiment.

"An early test of the potential for compromise is coming soon as Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package begins to wend its way through Congress."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Kim says she's working with fellow California Representative Katie Porter, a Democrat, on a bill to provide money for mental health services for youth impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns and has had good introductory conversations with Virginia Representative Abigail Spanberger, also a Democrat, about working together on the Foreign Affairs Committee.nn"

This is a positive sentiment.

"Kim says she's working with fellow California Representative Katie Porter, a Democrat, on a bill to provide money for mental health services for youth impacted by the COVID-19 lockdowns and has had good introductory conversations with Virginia Representative Abigail Spanberger, also a Democrat, about working together on the Foreign Affairs Committee.nn"

This is a positive sentiment.

"To be sure, not every newly-elected Republican woman is a violence-espousing conspiracy theorist like Greene, whose actions have included heckling a Parkland school shooting survivor and seeming to endorse the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi."

This is a negative sentiment.

"On immigration, 25 of them supported the hard-line anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration, including reductions on asylum and the building of a border wall."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Nor are they all pistol-toting gun-rights activists like Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, recently granted a conceal carry permit to make good on her Twitter vow to bring her Glock to work, or an outspoken firebrand like Illinois Representative Mary Miller, who took flack for saying at the pro-Trump rally before the Capitol riot, "Hitler was right about one thing."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Nor are they all pistol-toting gun-rights activists like Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, recently granted a conceal carry permit to make good on her Twitter vow to bring her Glock to work, or an outspoken firebrand like Illinois Representative Mary Miller, who took flack for saying at the pro-Trump rally before the Capitol riot, "Hitler was right about one thing."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Conway worried during the campaign about some of the more extreme candidates; neither she nor Stefanik's PAC supported the QAnon-promoting Greene, who triumphed anyway as the lone woman in a crowded primary field to replace retiring Representative Tom Graves in a ruby-red northern Georgia district.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

""We supported and worked with every single one of the Republican women who won with the exception of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert," Conway says."

This is a positive sentiment.

""We supported and worked with every single one of the Republican women who won with the exception of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert," Conway says."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is so conservative that she continues to oppose legalized same-sex marriage a good six years after the U.S. Supreme Court settled the matter and nearly a decade after her own sister married her wife."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Ocasio-Cortez replied that such an effort shows Mace "is cut from the same Trump cloth of dishonesty and opportunism."

This is a negative sentiment.

"That telegraphs a clear message to the new GOP women in Congress that it behooves them not to cross party lines -- or Trump, even out of office."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who in the 2018 cycle headed up candidate recruitment for the National Republican Congressional Committee, was particularly frustrated that just one of more than 100 female candidates she persuaded to run in 2018 won."

This is a negative sentiment.

"After a public spat with then-NRCC Chair Tom Emmer, Stefanik vacated her NRCC post to relaunch her Elevate PAC with a narrowed focus of financially supporting and personally mentoring female candidates at the earliest stages of their races."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Also discouraging for potential cross-aisle bipartisanship: In recent weeks, the state GOPs in Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska and Illinois have censured prominent Republicans, male and female alike, who voted for the second impeachment or publicly refuted Trump's election-fraud claims."

This is a negative sentiment.

"By contrast, 11 voted against certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, all of them voted against a second impeachment of former President Donald Trump and just three voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"By contrast, 11 voted against certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, all of them voted against a second impeachment of former President Donald Trump and just three voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"She has voted with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy 92 percent of the time -- and, in fact, in agreement with Trump's positions about 93 percent of the time, according to a FiveThirtyEight tracker."

This is a negative sentiment.

"She has voted with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy 92 percent of the time -- and, in fact, in agreement with Trump's positions about 93 percent of the time, according to a FiveThirtyEight tracker."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Stefanik was elected in 2014 at 30 as the youngest-ever Republican woman; she had a moderate reputation, espousing a desire to work in a bipartisan fashion and opposing Trump on his coziness with Russia, his border wall efforts and the ban on travel from several Muslim-majority nations."

This is a positive sentiment.

"One, then-Representative Nancy Johnson of Coecticut, received a 100 percent rating from the pro-choice advocacy group NARAL, a 53 percent rating from the pro-LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign and a 70 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters."

This is a positive sentiment.

"(Three of the women from the 109th Congress are still in the House, and two of them -- Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia -- are now senators.)nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"(Three of the women from the 109th Congress are still in the House, and two of them -- Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia -- are now senators.)nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"What's more, only seven of the new women signed on to an Inauguration Day letter from 17 freshmen Republicans to Biden calling for a fresh start."

This is a positive sentiment.

"so she's just going to be super Trumpy.""

This is a positive sentiment.

"By 2018, with the ascension of Trump, a mass exodus of white college-educated women from the GOP further reduced the variety of opinion within the party.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"One impact of the Tea Party and then Trump has been to make the party more centered toward the right."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Says Deckman, "All of these women, regardless of their personal views, recognize how much hold Trump still has on the party."nn"

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"When a right-winger runs against one of these women and they get a lot of Trump money behind them,"

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"Only one of the 19 newbies, Representative Young Kim of California, has joined the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 54 Republicans and Democrats focused on writing and supporting bipartisan legislation."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The Democrats were going to make them our AOCs," referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the outspoken New York progressive."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Barbara Bollier, a lifelong Republican elected to the Kansas Legislature four times, switched parties in 2018 and ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2020."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Most of the record 19 first-term GOP women in the House won big, though, often by selling themselves as unbending, Trump-style conservatives heading to Washington to mix it up."

This is a negative sentiment.

""I think it's notable that someone like Liz Cheney is becoming the voice of reason," says political scientist Melissa Deckman, an expert in gender and politics and author of Tea Party Women: Mamma Grizzlies, Grassroots Leaders and the Changing Face of the American Right."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Yet Kim may be an exception owing to the fact that she won her seat over incumbent Representative Gil Cisneros by about 4,100 votes in one of the year's closest House races."

This is a negative sentiment.

"(Stefanik, according to this measure, voted in accordance with Trump's position about 78 percent of the time."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Conway, the VIEW PAC executive director, dismisses such claims, insisting several of the newly elected women -- she pointed to Kim, Malliotakis, Salazar, Tenney and Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa, among others -- promised on the campaign trail they'd be bipartisan and independent."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Among the first-timers, only Young Kim, and Representatives Maria Salazar of Florida and Nicole Malliotakis of New York voted to remove Greene from committees.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Among the first-timers, only Young Kim, and Representatives Maria Salazar of Florida and Nicole Malliotakis of New York voted to remove Greene from committees.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Part of a wave of GOP women leaders who switched sides in Kansas in recent years that also included the now-Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, Bollier says they saw the right-wing orthodoxy tighten its grip on the party and isolate women who didn't toe the anti-abortion line."

This is a negative sentiment.

"She views herself as a template -- ProPublica shows she voted with Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi a surprising 46 percent of the time during the last Congress and still won re-election by a landslide -- and points to topics like COVID-19 relief, sexual assault in the military and parental leave as areas ripe for compromise."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Yet at the same time as that spectacle played out in their midst, Beutler, a Republican from rural southwestern Washington who was elected on the Tea Party wave in 2010, and Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Seattle who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, were texting each other."

This is a positive sentiment.

"In a case over disputed ballots in the state's 22nd congressional district, a judge ruled in favor of Republican Claudia Teey, handing her victory over Democrat Anthony Brandisi by a mere 109 votes -- thereby settling the last undecided race of the 2020 election."

This is a positive sentiment.

"In a case over disputed ballots in the state's 22nd congressional district, a judge ruled in favor of Republican Claudia Teey, handing her victory over Democrat Anthony Brandisi by a mere 109 votes -- thereby settling the last undecided race of the 2020 election."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Then, in 2019, her national profile soared as one of the most vocal defenders of Trump as the House moved to impeach him for his efforts to strong arm Ukraine's president into digging up dirt on the family of Joe Biden, his likely opponent in the 2020 election."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Then, in 2019, her national profile soared as one of the most vocal defenders of Trump as the House moved to impeach him for his efforts to strong arm Ukraine's president into digging up dirt on the family of Joe Biden, his likely opponent in the 2020 election."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Two of those wiers, Representatives Diane Harshbarger of Teessee and Lisa McClain of Michigan, each plunged more than $1 million of their own money into their campaigns in order to best a crowded field of men; Conway says candidates spending big out of their own pockets for House races was historically largely the province of men."

This is a positive sentiment.

"Two of those wiers, Representatives Diane Harshbarger of Teessee and Lisa McClain of Michigan, each plunged more than $1 million of their own money into their campaigns in order to best a crowded field of men; Conway says candidates spending big out of their own pockets for House races was historically largely the province of men."

This is a positive sentiment.

"All seven signatories won their elections by fewer than five percentage points; Representative Mariaette Miller-Meeks of Iowa won by a scant six votes. ""

This is a positive sentiment.

"But none disagreed when, the day after she lost her committee assignments, Greene declared defiantly about Trump: "The party is his."

This is a negative sentiment.

"The vote to retain Cheney in a House leadership post was 145-61, an overwhelming statement in support of a woman who had gone head-to-head with Trump, she notes.nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"Whitman, who voted for Democrats over Trump in both 2016 and 2020, but remains a registered Republican "for now," agrees: "There's no longer a cohesive Republican Party."

This is a negative sentiment.

"Stefanik has decided she can't be speaker without being super Trumpy"

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""She really, really, really, really wants to be Speaker, and the reality of the Republican Party now is you've got her and Liz Cheney playing two very different hands," says Mair."

This is a positive sentiment.

"What's more, for every Young Kim wanting to keep her head down and get to know her cross-aisle colleagues, there's a representative like Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina realizing the power of confrontation."

This is a positive sentiment.