Rachel Bovard: Executive director, Senate GOP Steering Committee 

Rachel Bovard is the top staffer of the Senate Republican Steering Committee, a group of between 15 and 20 conservative Republican senators who meet weekly to develop conservative policy and strategy in hopes of getting it adopted by the broader Senate Republican conference. 

This year, Bovard has focused on helping to shape bicameral strategy because Republicans have control of the House but not the Senate.  

Members of the Steering Committee, including Chairman Mike Lee (Utah) and conservative stalwart Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Rick Scott (Fla.), worked closely with House conservatives this year to develop a strategy to enact significant fiscal reforms as part of any action to raise the debt limit.  

Lee scored an impressive win earlier this year when he led a group of 43 Republican senators in sending a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) informing him that the Senate Republican conference was united behind House Republicans in calling for spending cuts and structure budget reform to be attached to debt limit legislation.  

Lee, Johnson, Scott and other conservatives in both chambers ultimately voted against the debt limit bill, but their united stance pushed GOP leaders in the Senate and House to take a stronger position on fiscal reform and eventually forced President Biden to the negotiating table.  

James Wallner, who previously served as director of the Steering Committee, said “Rachel and Lee have really been focused on trying to rebuild the muscle memory senators lost” for “how to be senators who do things” without merely relying on Committee chairmen and party leaders to decide whether their initiatives succeed or fail.