SEATTLE (AP) – Jaime Herrera Beutler has spent a decade in Congress as a moderate, discreet Republican who largely avoided heated partisan battles. That changed with the second Donald Trump dismissal trial.
The Washington state congresswoman was at the center of a debate in the Senate on Saturday over whether the former president rejected requests for help from lawmakers when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
His statement Friday afternoon claiming that Trump rejected a request from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, revalidated the trial in Trump’s Senate and sparked a fight to call Herrera Beutler as a witness. That result was averted by a last-minute negotiation between Democratic prosecutors and Trump lawyers.
Herrera Beutler, 42, has not spent his career seeking this kind of attention.
She was first elected to the third district of Washington Congress in 2010, highlighting her humble roots and connecting with voters, describing how she and her husband were tenants who still saved money to buy their first home.
As a state legislator, she defeated a much better-known Democratic opponent to win the U.S. House seat that includes southwest Washington as well as the more liberal suburbs of northern Portland, Oregon.
The eldest of her three children, Abigail, was born prematurely in 2013 and without kidneys. Herrera Beutler has worked to help other families facing long-term medical crises and has pushed for legislation to make child care more accessible.
Herrera Beutler, a Hispanic in a party that has fought to win Hispanic voters, was immediately seen as a rising Republican star in a state with no viable Republican Party candidates.
But he never ran in the Senate or the U.S. governor and was not as newsworthy as U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, another Washington congresswoman, who took a leadership position and became a figure. national.
Then the spotlight found Herrera Beutler.
His statement Friday night said McCarthy told him he was talking to Trump as riot police stormed the Capitol. He said McCarthy asked Trump to “publicly undo the riot” and told Trump that the violent crowd was made up of Trump supporters, not members of the far left.
In her statement, posted on Twitter, Herrera Beutler said, “That’s when, according to McCarthy, the president said, ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you.’
He then appealed to people who knew Trump’s conversation with McCarthy to speak out.
“And to the patriots who were on the side of the former president as these talks went on, or even to the former vice president: if you have anything to add here, now would be the time,” he said.
He came to Congress in a tea-dominated class, but Herrera Beutler has been a vintage Republican establishment, though he is more willing than most to challenge Trump and other far-right Republican Party figures. He voted against Trump’s push to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, but has favored curbing abortion and guns.
Over the past two election cycles, Democrats have headed to Herrera Beutler, hoping to regain their seat in the House by linking it to Trump. But in 2018 and 2020, Beutler won, defeating a well-funded rival and advancing Trump in his district.
Herrera Beutler has stressed his willingness to work occasionally across the aisle and listen to the other side. In 2018 she was one of the few Republicans to vote against renewing the federal government’s mandateless surveillance program.
She voted against Trump’s ouster in 2019. But she was one of ten members of the U.S. House Republican Party who voted to accuse the former president of his role in the Jan. 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 his recent statements about the dismissal and his conversation with McCarthy.
“Since I publicly announced my decision to vote for the impeachment, I have shared these details in countless conversations with members and colleagues, and several times through the media and other public forums,” he said.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Herrera Beutler represents the 3rd district of the Washington Congress.