McMorris Rodgers Watch: Why You Should Give a Fuck About the Eastern WA Republican Holding a Fundraiser in Bellevue Tonight

Trump score: 100 percent Mark Wilson / getty

See that photo up there? That's Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who voted to take away your healthcare, strip your internet privacy protections and wants to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. She'll be in Bellevue for a $5,000 a plate fundraiser sponsored by the Microsoft PAC.

McMorris Rodgers represents Washington's 5th Congressional District, which covers a red swath of eastern Washington, including Spokane. She's the fourth highest ranking Republican in the U.S. House. And she's one of President Donald Trump's strongest allies in Washington state.

Trump reportedly considered McMorris Rodgers for Secretary of the Interior, which makes sense, given her 100 percent score on FiveThirtyEight's tracker of how often members of Congress vote with the president.

"Do I have concerns about the comments he made in the past and on the campaign trail this year about women; people with disabilities; and those from different backgrounds? Absolutely," McMorris Rodgers wrote in a mealy-mouthed and poorly punctuated Facebook post last May. But she went ahead and voted for him anyway.

Last September, she hosted a meeting between Ivanka Trump and women members of Congress and said she was "excited about Ivanka's leadership" on issues affecting women and families. In November, this:

Since Trump won the election, McMorris Rodgers has, like Congressman Dave Reichert, become a loyal ally, pushing his dangerous agenda. And so, like Reichert, we're going to start keeping a running list of everything she does that helps Trump or fucks over her constituents. Here are a few to get us started:

• McMorris Rodgers voted for both Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When a report from the Congressional Budget Office revealed that the first version of Trump/Ryan Care would leave 24 million people insured—at least 70,000 of them in McMorris Rodgers' district—she stuck by her support. In a statement, McMorris Rodgers said the CBO report did not "take into account future actions Congress and the Administration will take to further lower costs and increase coverage options." She voted for the proposal in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In May, when a new version of the legislation came up for a vote, McMorris Rodgers again supported it. She was the only member of Washington's House delegation to vote yes. She defended the bill's potential damage to those with pre-existing conditions, writing in a Washington Post op-ed that "returning control to states, through both funding and reducing red tape" will allow states to "innovate and to stabilize costs."

• McMorris Rodgers' office said she supported an effort to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, though she wasn't able to vote on it. In 2014, that office said McMorris Rodgers improperly used public money for her campaign, but didn't launch further investigation.

• She voted in favor of repealing internet privacy protections that would have prevented internet service providers from selling your data. According to OpenSecrets, McMorris Rodgers received $25,150 from Comcast in the last election cycle. After a vote by the Federal Communication Commission in May to roll back net neutrality rules, McMorris Rodgers sent her Republican colleagues a list of talking points to defend that decision. Those talking points were written by the cable industry.

• She voted against requesting Trump's tax returns.

• She makes an appearance on the recently leaked tape of Republicans discussing whether Trump is paid by Russia, which House Speaker Paul Ryan first denied ever happened and then said was a joke. McMorris Rodgers, too, claims it was a joke.

• Like other members of Congress, McMorris Rodgers has refused to hold a recent large in-person town hall, though she has held town halls in the past. She consulted Reichert for town hall safety advice. Reichert advised having an exit strategy and a "hard door, not a glass door." When she did speak to a large group this year at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, the crowd booed.

• In 2014, McMorris Rodgers delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union. In that speech, she cited a woman named "Bette in Spokane" whose insurance premium increased "nearly $700 per month" under Obamacare. In fact, the Spokesman Review found, that rate was based on an expensive plan an insurance company offered the woman, who refused to "go on that Obama website at all" to find a plan under the Affordable Care Act.

• In 2012, McMorris Rodgers opposed same-sex marriage and allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. (That year, she also opposed cannabis legalization and doubted humans' contributions to climate change.)

• She is "opposed to abortion in all instances, except when the life of the mother is at stake" and does "not believe the federal government should fund or require insurance companies to fund abortions." A temporary (but regularly renewed) ban already exists on federal funding for abortions. It's called the Hyde Amendment and it hurts low-income women who don't have insurance coverage. This year, McMorris Rodgers voted to make that ban permanent. She's done the same thing a bunch of times.

• The Sierra Club is no fan of McMorris Rodgers, citing her votes against fracking protections and in favor of expanding oil drilling.

• In 2009, she voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act to protect women against pay discrimination.

Unlike Reichert's district, Washington's District 5 isn't on the Democrats' list of vulnerable seats for 2018. McMorris Rodgers reliably wins re-election, and last year, 49.6 percent of voters in the district backed Trump (compared to 37.2 percent for Hillary Clinton.)

But Democrats, with no shortage of moments McMorris Rodgers backed Trump, will look to ride anti-Trump resentment to flipping the district in 2018. And they'll need your help, Seattle liberals, to shake your eastern Washington friends awake. Get door-knocking or donating. This guy has already started.