As House Republicans Veer Right, Moderates Like Jen Kiggans Come Under Fire

With an impeachment inquiry and potential government shutdown dominating the news cycle, the House Republican conference has placed the priorities of its hard-right flank front and center.

For the 18 Republicans who represent congressional districts that voted for President Joe Biden, this emphasis has meant straddling a careful line between the policy-focused centrism favored by many of their communities and the rhetoric-heavy politics preferred by the MAGA base.

Republican Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, who represents Virginia's 2^nd Congressional District, may have upset this balance late last month after praising some of her party's most conservative and controversial members in her comments at a breakfast meeting hosted by The Tidewater Liberty Partners, a group that advocates for limited government, which were recorded and later posted on YouTube.

The freshman representative, whose district the Cook Political Report rates as R+3, was asked by a member of the audience to comment specifically on her interactions with Republican Representatives Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Chip Roy of Texas, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the latter three of whom are counted among the more conservative members of Congress.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is so kind," Kiggans said. "I have nothing bad or, you know, different to say about any of these people. They're on my team, right, they are my teammates. We all want the same things. We are all frustrated with the direction of the country."

She went on to explain that "my district is purple, my district is R+3," while "some of these guys have the luxury of being in a district [that is] R+ over 40."

"I'm R+3, so I'm a little right of center," she added, "whereas I think Chip Roy is R+45, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, too. So they a luxury of representing a super-conservative district."

Greene, Massie, and Roy have supported restrictive stances against abortion and want to cut funding for the Ukraine War, along with backing other hardline conservative priorities. For Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot who emphasized the phrase "I'm not an extremist" during her 2022 campaign, voicing solidarity with her party's most conservative members could put her at odds with voters in her more moderate district.

Benjamin Melusky, a political science professor at Old Dominion University, located in Kiggan's district, said the congresswoman focused her successful campaign on framing the incumbent Democrat Elaine Luria as "more extreme than she was," tying her to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That same playbook could be used against Kiggans in 2024 by Democratic challenger and Navy veteran Missy Cotter Smasal, Melusky said.

"There is potential that we could see Smasal's campaign do exactly what was done with Luria," Melusky told Newsweek, "which is to try to paint Kiggans as much more ideologically extreme than her voting record."

"You mention Marjorie Taylor Greene," he added, "and instantly that attracts attention."

More than just favorable comments tie Kiggans and Greene together. Kiggans' campaign received a $2,000 donation from Greene's campaign in late March. In terms of voting in line with Greene, Kiggans voted alongside the MAGA firebrand 89.9 percent of the time, which makes her one of the 18 House Republicans who least often cast their votes with Greene, according to The Center for American Progress.

Representative Kiggans' office sent Newsweek the following statement when asked to comment on congresswoman's remarks at the Tidewater breakfast:

"As a Navy veteran, healthcare professional, and former State Senator, the Congresswoman brings a lifetime's worth of problem-solving experience to Congress, including working with people from all different walks of life to accomplish a common objective," the statement said. "While the Congresswoman does not always agree with her colleagues — on both sides of the aisle — she believes every Member of Congress shares the same goal: representing their district to the best of their ability."

Nationally, Kiggans likely will not be the only House Republican who will be forced to explain her relationship with members like Greene. Jennifer Lawless, chair of the politics department at the University of Virginia, said Speaker Kevin McCarthy has done a "terrible job" protecting his moderate members from taking tough votes, especially in wake of the impeachment inquiry brought forth against President Joe Biden.

"He's allowing votes that put members in danger to come up," Lawless told Newsweek. "He's voting in favor of moving forward with an impeachment inquiry. That might be enough to give the Democrats the majority in 2024."

In addition, Lawless said McCarthy has been "airing the Republican Party's dirty laundry in public" by allowing intra-party divides to become public. With just a five-seat majority, small coalitions can impede progress on the larger objectives of the party.

Lawless said that McCarthy has struggled with this slim majority far more than Pelosi did with her own seven-seat majority during the previous Congress. She argued that Pelosi was superior in keeping conflict behind the scenes, protecting people who needed to vote against the party's position, and counting votes in advance to ensure leadership was not surprised by outcomes.

Lawless said that while the intra-party divide playing out within McCarthy's conference is not historically unusual, what is unusual is dealing with such conflict under such a slim majority. In addition, McCarthy made concessions to the hard-right members of his faction, including approval of a "motion to vacate" which allows members to trigger a vote to oust the speaker with simple majority, in what many saw as a desperate move to gain the speakership.

All of these factors combine to make the job of a freshman representative in a swing district like Kiggans' a major challenge.

"The members that are coming from purple districts are basically facing a nightmare scenario," Lawless said. "[They] are really trying to thread a needle where they're not seen as Republicans in name only, but they're also seen as people in their district who can actually represent their constituents."

"So when an impeachment inquiry for Biden comes up," she added, "that puts them in a very, very complicated position."