For Republicans like Missouri Congresswoman Ann Wagner, intraparty rancor was a recurring theme throughout the past two years in the U.S. House.
Because of the party's majority being fairly small and Democratic control of the Senate and the White House, House Republicans weren’t able to accomplish many of their priorities. But throughout the tumult, Wagner said on the latest episode of the Politically Speaking podcast, she’s been able to get things done both on the House floor and on the Financial Services Committee.
She noted her advocacy for Boeing, one of the St. Louis region’s biggest employers, and getting a bill passed to pare down the backlog of rape kit processing around the country.
“There are ways to get things done in a divided government,” Wagner said. “I do reach across the aisle. I believe that I am part of the governing portion of this House.”
Wagner is running for a seventh term against Democrat Ray Hartmann, who will appear on Politically Speaking this week.
Whether Republicans maintain their slim majority in the House is unclear. Some of the seats that the GOP captured in 2022 were in fairly Democratic states like New York and California, places that are expected to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5.
While Wagner expects the GOP to still be in charge of the House, she doesn’t expect that the majority will be particularly large. She added that she hopes that having only a small majority won’t empower people in her caucus who constantly clash with leadership — like Matt Gaetz of Florida or Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
“We do have some renegades in the Republican conference that may be doing certain things for clickbait and not necessarily to be representing their constituents or being a part of a team.”
Wagner backs Ukraine and Israel
One of the areas where Wagner stood out from much of the GOP caucus is her continued support of providing military aid to Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Wagner voted for a foreign aid bill that much of Missouri’s Republican House delegation opposed. Not only does Wagner continue to support sending what she called “lethal aid” to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, she would like to set the country up to eventually join NATO.
“I believe one day, hopefully, when Ukraine is safe and sovereign and rebuilt once again, they can be a part of our NATO alliance also,” Wagner said. “And in fact, we've only grown NATO. I think Putin felt that he was going to be able to fracture it. And what we did was even grow it with Sweden and Finland, which are right along the Russian border line.”
Wagner said she trusts Donald Trump to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, even though the GOP presidential nominee and his allies have lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for asking the United States to provide aid to the beleaguered country.
In fact, when Wagner posted a picture of her with Zelensky on the social media platform X, she faced a torrent of criticism from fans of Trump.
“I do trust that Donald Trump is going to end this war. He will,” Wagner said. “Don't know what he has in mind in terms of negotiating that. But again, overwhelming force and diplomacy will be a part of it.”
Wagner has also been a consistent supporter of providing military aid to Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. When asked if the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could lead to an end to the yearlong conflict, Wagner said that’s primarily up to Hamas.
“We know that Qatar is harboring Hamas leadership that funds a lot of these horrible atrocities that are going on,” Wagner said. “Will they send in someone new, a new leadership network, or is Qatar going to work with us to make sure that that does not happen?”
Backing Trump
In 2021, Wagner voted to sustain President Joe Biden’s wins in Pennsylvania and Arizona — breaking with other Missouri Republicans. She also was critical of how Trump acted during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
But Wagner is strongly supporting Trump’s reelection bid, contending that the nation was better off under his economic and foreign policy.
“Were you better under the policies of Republicans and Donald Trump or better under the policies of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden?” Wagner said. “I'm telling you the answer is no. Everywhere I go in this district, people are struggling to pay their bills. It's the cost of living, it's a cost of groceries, it's a cost of gas, it's inflation.”
While Wagner’s district is GOP leaning thanks to the addition of Franklin and Warren counties during redistricting, it’s possible the St. Louis County portion could continue to get more Democratic. Western St. Louis County is full of college-educated white voters, some of whom have been drifting away from the GOP since Trump came into office.
Wagner, though, is hoping her constituents “go back to some of those policies, to that peace and prosperity that we had some four to five years ago.”
