Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) isn’t running with the pack.
The first-term lawmaker broke new ground this year when she became the first Republican woman to represent Oregon in the House. And she’s quietly emerging as an independent voice within the heavily conservative GOP conference.
Those dynamics were on full display in September, when hard-liners joined forces to block a series of government spending bills, including a popular Pentagon package. In response, Chavez-DeRemer banded with fellow Republicans from battleground districts to stage a protest on the Capitol steps, accusing the conservatives of causing undue suffering across the country.
“We are one-half of one-third of this government, and we have to work together,” she said. “But at some point, we have to step up and fight for the American people, and that’s what we intend to do.”
More recently, Chavez-DeRemer broke with her conference on a much more prominent issue: The vote to fill the Speaker’s chair following the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
With Republicans flailing to find a replacement, lawmakers faced heavy pressure to rally behind Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). But the pugnacious founding member of the conservative Freedom Caucus is a polarizing figure on Capitol Hill. And Chavez-DeRemer, whose district was carried by President Biden in 2020, joined almost two dozen other Republicans to sink his bid.
Jordan, she said, “would only continue” the chaos that followed McCarthy’s exit.
Chavez-DeRemer has also sought to carve a distinct profile on abortion, bucking GOP conventions when she vowed over the summer to reject any “stand-alone federal action” that limits taxpayer funding for the procedure.
The remarks sparked a backlash from anti-abortion groups, and a month later, she supported a GOP proposal to block the Pentagon from reimbursing service members who travel to receive abortion services — a vote that prompted cries from Democrats that she’d broken a key promise to voters.
Still, Chavez-DeRemer maintains her opposition to blanket bans on taxpayer funding for abortions, saying states like Oregon should be free to dictate their abortion policies, a break from most of her GOP colleagues.