A Quick Glance at Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Residing in Seattle, Washington, Noah Genatossio graduated with a bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in political science from the University of Washington and then went to work in politics. He served as a campaign intern for Bill Bryant and later a congressional intern for U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Noah Genatossio is especially interested in foreign policy as it relates to the Middle East.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers serves as Washington State’s current 5th Congressional District representative. Originally from Salem, Oregon, McMorris Rodgers first got into politics in 1994 and has worked her way up into the U.S. House of Representatives. There was some speculation in 2016 that former president Donald Trump was considering McMorris Rodgers to be the nation’s next Secretary of Interior, but he ended up selecting Ryan Zinke, a congressman from Montana.

While in office, McMorris Rodgers’ top priorities are providing the best healthcare and benefits to America’s veterans, better support for people with disabilities, and developing a clean renewable energy solution that is innovative and affordable for Americans.

States Watch Political Parties to Determine Self-Direction

 Noah Genatossio, a resident of Seattle, Washington, is a graduate of the University of Washington (UW).

In August 2022, a Seattle Times article discussed a shift in the rationale for how states make legal/legislative decisions. The discussion was a part of a book UW professor Jake Grumbach wrote regarding this change.

Previously, states looked to other states for precedence to create and establish policies that were designed to fit the needs of the residents. In this way, states became laboratories of democracy, as Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in his opinion about a case regarding the right of the state to tax two ice salesmen.

However, Grumbach argues that today’s federalism has exchanged this strategy for one where states look to national political parties for policy, ideology, and objective guidance. According to Grumbach, the only problem with this is that it makes the government less representative, responsive, and democratic.

The Kansas 2020 race illustrates this point. During the campaign, the Senate leader was taped promising donors to draw congressional districts to get more Republicans elected at the national level. However, he said donors first needed funding to elect more Republicans at the state level. Furthermore, 19 states passed laws making it more difficult to vote in 2021, only two of which were not Republican controlled.

This year Democrats have become more proactive in Illinois, Oregon, and Nevada by drawing their own gerrymanders to offset the work of Republicans. This is another example of how party action in one state can facilitate party action in other states.

Ultimately, this type of policy does threaten the traditional democracy practiced in the US. With pressures at the national level, state legislatures working at the ground level with residents might not be representing their interests if they are too in tune to party activity.