A small group of women known as some of the fiercest MAGA stalwarts in the House have led the way in pushing back against President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on some of the most high-profile issues of recent months — many involving the victimization of women.
These lawmakers have been on an island apart from their colleagues as they’ve called for the Department of Justice to release files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and supported a resolution to censure a fellow Republican accused of sexual misconduct.
“I think we ran out of patience a long time ago, and we’re honey badgers, and so I hope that …there will be more of us that will speak out. I’m very grateful for both Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert for being strong,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told The Hill.
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Mace have been some of Trump’s most loyal backers since they arrived on Capitol Hill, even as he unleashed gendered insults against his political opponents and female journalists.
But they stood firm against Trump’s eleventh-hour campaign to pressure Mace and Boebert to take their names off an effort to force action on a bill to release the Epstein files.
They scored a victory this week when Trump signed the disclosure bill into law.
“This is a huge day for the Epstein survivors and really, survivors everywhere across the country. This is, I believe, a symbolic vote for all of us — I’m a survivor as well,” Mace said in a Newsmax interview on Tuesday.
And it was Greene, Boebert and Mace, along with Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), who were instrumental in pushing an effort to censure Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who was served with a restraining order after his ex-girlfriend accused him of threatening to release intimate photos of her after their breakup — an allegation he denies.
They had fumed on Tuesday about previous attempts to censure Mills failing and accused GOP leadership of cutting deals with Democrats to protect wrongdoers. Luna on Tuesday raised a parliamentary inquiry on the matter.
“I was wondering if the Speaker of the House of Representatives can explain why leadership on both sides, both Democrat and Republican, are cutting back-end deals to cover up public corruption in the House of Representatives from both Republican and Democrat members of Congress,” Luna asked on the House floor, to which Boebert cheered and yelled, “Get it, girl!”
Mace introduced the censure resolution on Wednesday and forced a vote on it.
“This isn’t about partisan politics, it’s about protecting the integrity of this institution and the safety of women,” Mace said in a statement.
The chamber voted 310-103-12 to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee, essentially scuttling it.
Asked about the vote Thursday morning, Cammack told Fox35 in Orlando, “Wrong is wrong. And principles are not partisan.”
Referencing the allegations against Mills, she added, “This is a real reality for countless women around the country. And I would not be doing my job in fighting for my constituents if I did not stand by her because I am her voice.”
Asked about so many Republican women standing up to reprimand him, Mills suggested it was a political move.
“Well, I think that if you look at Nancy Mace’s race for governor, that’ll tell you exactly what that motivation is,” Mills said.
Mace has made her personal stories of sexual assault and dating violence central to her political identity. As a state lawmaker, she gained notoriety for speaking out in favor of abortion ban exceptions for rape victims. And in Congress, she gave a stunning floor speech making accusations of sexual assault and voyeurism against her ex-fiance and three other South Carolina men.
Boebert and Luna sat behind her during the speech in a show of support, along with a handful of other lawmakers.
Greene, meanwhile, has been at odds with GOP leadership for months over a wide swath of issues. And she has been perhaps the most outspoken Republican, other than Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), on the issue of the Epstein files, standing with survivors of Epstein during multiple press conferences in front of the Capitol.
Greene, whom Trump notably unendorsed and called a “traitor” over the Epstein issue, took a sharp jab at him on Tuesday.
“Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves, a patriot is an American that serves the United States of America, and Americans like the women standing behind me,” she said, referring to the Epstein accusers.
She had previously accused Johnson of “hypocrisy” in an Axios interview for brushing off questions regarding the restraining order against Mills.
And she told The Washington Post last month that “there’s a lot of weak Republican men, and they’re more afraid of strong Republican women.”
“So they always try to marginalize the strong Republican women that actually want to do something and actually want to achieve,” she added.
These bursts of opposition could prove to be problematic for Johnson in the future, as he has already struggled to coalesce his conference on issues while navigating a razor-thin majority in the House.
But Republican strategist Brian Robinson told The Hill, “There is no leader who could govern with such a tiny majority without significant road bumps, and he’s governed all this time with a sword dangling by a horse’s hair over his neck.”
Robinson added that he thinks the opposition is a sign the party is “reverting back to normal.”
“This is how it’s always been. … The two parties have to be very diverse in their viewpoints. The last decade where the party has moved ever closer towards falling in line with Trump’s viewpoints — this is the historical anomaly,” Robinson said. “And I think dissenting voices are a healthy part of democracy.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told The Hill he’s glad to see these female lawmakers speak out.
“They’re representing their constituency … and some of them don’t want what they’ve seen happen to other women to happen anymore. So I think it’s independence, and I think it’s good,” Burchett said.
And they’ve indicated they’re not finished pushing back on leadership on a variety of issues.
Luna this week indicated she was ready to launch another discharge petition, this one on the issue of a stock trading ban.
“I think there’s a lot of self-interested narcissists … running Washington that want to get rich while the American people suffer, and that’s why you’re seeing such strong opposition against this. So, I’m calling out the bulls—, and I really don’t care who I piss off,” she said.